DETROIT -- With a laugh, Detroit Pistons wing Stanley Johnson recalled the elbows he used to take while practicing with Aron Baynes.

Even against his own teammates, Baynes declines to rein in his physical nature. It was no surprise to the Pistons when the rugged big man helped his new team, the Boston Celtics, set the tone Sunday afternoon.

Just two weeks ago, the Celtics got ripped apart by the Pistons. Andre Drummond crushed them on rolls to the rim. Tobias Harris, Reggie Jackson and Avery Bradley had their way on the perimeter. Boston hasn't been outclassed many times this season, but that was one of the times.

Sunday was not.

"We had already seen them once so we learned from our mistakes," star Al Horford after his team's 91-81 win. "And I felt like tonight we were much more solid. And I think it was because of Baynes. I think him being in there, I think he made the difference for our group."

So did the defensive strategy. How much did the Celtics change after getting shredded by the Pistons on Nov. 27?

"Quite a bit," said head coach Brad Stevens. "Hey, they missed some open shots that they made at our place, so maybe that feels better than it was. We'll go back and look and see if it was effective or not. But it felt like we did a much better job, at least protecting the paint tonight then we did in Game 1."

Here's a good example of how concerned the Celtics were with stopping Drummond rolls Sunday:

Instead of stepping out to help slow down the ball-handler, Baynes remains even with Drummond (though not quite at his side) the entire possession. From the opposite corner, Smart sinks down all the way to the rim, making sure the Pistons weren't going to find their dangerous big man. That leaves Jackson open in the corner, but he misses the shot.

Here's another example:

Again, Baynes is fully concerned with stopping Drummond's roll. The guards do enough to slow down Jackson, Baynes' presence at the rim helps even when he refuses to leave Drummond, and Jackson misses a makeable floater.

Compare that to how the Celtics defended Drummond last time:

In both cases, Horford steps out to stop the ball-handler, leaving Drummond by himself on the roll. In the first play, there's nobody on the weak side to keep the big man from slamming home an easy dunk. In the second, the Celtics are too small with their help. Drummond reaches his big paw into the air and finishes over the help.

Check out how the Celtics handled a similar dribble hand-off situation Sunday:

"They didn't take their body off (Drummond)," said Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy, "And we weren't able to exploit it with other guys. It did get other guys shots, but we didn't make them."

After scoring 118 points on 51.8-percent shooting against Boston two weeks ago, the Pistons scored just 81 on 33.2-percent shooting Sunday. Drummond, who wrecked the Celtics for 26 points, 22 rebounds, six assists and four steals last time, only made one shot en route to four points and 15 rebounds.

"Packing the paint, everyone tag, everyone pull in and make them play from the perimeter. So that was one of the things, and everyone stuck to it really well," Baynes explained. "Our offense wasn't as crisp tonight as we wanted it to be, but defensively we had a game plan and we stuck with it. We were trying to pack the paint and make them make plays from outside. Last time they really had whatever they wanted from inside the paint, so tonight we wanted to go out there and try to control it a lot better. We had five guys working on a string for most of the night; (it's) always fun to play defense like that."

The most entertaining thing Baynes contributed offensively was a missed 3-pointer. The big fella doesn't try many shots from there, so it was amusing to see him pop out to the arc for a long ball. The attempt didn't go in, but his work on the other side was stellar. With Marcus Morris (knee) out, the big man played 27 minutes instead of the 13 he played last time against the Pistons. Baynes' size, toughness and intelligence all help against Drummond.

"He really takes a lot of pressure off of me," said Horford. "He knows how to play against a guy like (Drummond). He did a great job for us tonight, rebounding the ball, just being there defensively for our team. It was one of his better games for us."

"A lot of times it was Baynes that obviously was backing up into (helping on the guards), but he was handling the dribble handoffs, so it was other guys behind him stopping the lob," Stevens explained. "So they've got to make sure. And we talked about, if Drummond rolls we have to have bodies there so we can -- and then they put you in that issue of then you're late closing out to Harris or you're late closing out to Tolliver, which we found ourselves some. Then you have to make sure that if we need to adjust further we can. We had some ability to work on it since our last game but these guys are great at running their stuff and we may have been fortunate because they missed some shots."