Do the Pistons finally have a second star to go with Cade Cunningham?

They come in great waves and whooshes, runs fueled by defense, athleticism and will. They can feel Biblical, not to mention cathartic, and did again in the Detroit Pistons' season opener at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

The matinee tip had the feel of a playoff game, until the Boston Celtics tipped the script in their favor. But when the Pistons, led by a couple of pesky reserves, started chipping away at a 22-point, third-quarter hole, the vibrations rumbled all the way up Woodward.

The Pistons ripped off the biggest opening day comeback since at least the 1970s, and they did their way, which is to say principally with defense. Yet the runs they summon by squeezing the court will be easy to dismiss until they do it consistently in the playoffs.

Never mind that they just did it again, to open the regular season, before a national audience, against a contender in the East.

Never mind that the Pistons nearly did it last season in the playoffs; a foiled inbounds pass away from a likely berth in the Eastern Conference Finals. That mistake came from inexperience as opposed to philosophical identity and roster construction.

Not that there weren't issues. There were, and are, but the solutions to get past that point next spring might finally lurk within, and that played out at LCA Tuesday afternoon, where the threat of more shooting eventually led to ... more scoring.

Proving this team is different is the burden of proof the Pistons carry these days after their 60-win campaign ended in the second round last season. This is the burden of playing the "Detroit" way, a style that almost everyone doubts can win in the age of pace-and-space.

But that's a narrow view of who these Pistons were a season ago, and who they are at the moment.

[ NEW SHOW: Listen to the "Freep Sports Show" on our Detroit Free Press livestream on YouTube and available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple or Spotify). ]

The Pistons knocked off the Celtics in the NBA's season opener, 121-113, by suffocating them, no doubt, and that surely felt familiar. They turned the game by turning the defensive pressure and that led to a 23-0 run.

"It was our defense, for sure," said J.B. Bickerstaff.

But they turned it, too, with shotmaking, mostly from deep, almost all from the hands of Duncan Robinson and Javonte Green.

The shots Robinson and Green made were shots the team missed in the first half, quality shots, 3-pointers that opened because of improved spacing.

Half the fan base turned on the team when those shots weren't falling early. No, not in the arena, but on social media, where onlookers were convinced the season was finished ... and that the Celtics were a rung – or two – above.

Such overreaction is the currency of the times, I suppose, and I'll do my best to avoid that here.

So, here goes: this year's team is better than last year's team, because Ausar Thompson looks like a star.

His leap alone doesn't mean the Pistons will win 60 games again in the regular season. But it should mean they'll have a better chance to make a deeper run in the spring.

It isn't just Thompon's potential leap, though. The additional shooting – John Collins, Isaiah Joe, a healthy Kevin Huerter – help, too, as does the gained experience within the core of Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Thompson.

But Thompson is the key, and if his ball handling improvement is as real as it looked Tuesday afternoon, and if his decision making and passing only get better, then he changes the ceiling of this team.

Add in a midrange jumper and more aggressiveness attacking the paint and Cunningham has his second star.

THE GAME: Detroit Pistons use epic 23-0 run to top Celtics in national TV opener

If nothing else, said Bickerstaff, Thompson's play Tuesday shows why he "makes us harder to guard."

"The way that they have to play him is going to be different," said Bickerstaff. "Being able to hide Cade a bit … we want Ausar to be aggressive. We want him to be assertive, put pressure on people."

He did against the Celtics and hit the game-sealing midrange jumper as the shot-clock expired with 41 seconds left.

Thompson is the primary player who changes the possibilities. But he isn't the only one. The Pistons showed that, too.

Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.