A fiery-hot fourth quarter from star player Cade Cunningham wasn’t enough for the Detroit Pistons to avoid losing their NBA-record 27th consecutive game, this time 118-112 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, Dec. 26, at Little Caesars Arena.
It was the second of back-to-back games the Pistons dropped to the Nets (15-15), and the defeat resulted in Detroit setting the league’s all-time record for consecutive losses in a single season. With the loss, the Pistons fell to just 2-28 on the season, and have gone two entire calendar months without a win. The last victory came on Oct. 28, 2023.
Cunningham was spectacular on the night and particularly in the last quarter, where he scored 19 of his game-high 41 points. He continued to go basket-for-basket with the Nets late in the game, but after scoring 10 consecutive points down the stretch and the Pistons trailing by only five points, 115-110, with 38 seconds remaining, the Nets double-teamed Cunningham in the corner and didn’t allow him to receive an inbounds pass. Instead, the ball went to Pistons reserve Alec Burks, who hurled an off-balance three with the shot clock winding down.
On Brooklyn’s previous possession, Cam Thomas, with two seconds left on the shot clock, found a wide-open Dorian Finney-Smith, who proceeded to deliver a dagger and bury a three, making it 115-110 and effectively slamming the door shut on the attempted comeback.
Cunningham was the first Pistons player since Jerry Stackhouse in 2001 to have multiple 40-point games in the same month, previously notching a career-high 43-point effort in another Pistons six-point loss to the Hawks just over a week ago.
The Pistons are just one more loss away from the overall record of 28 straight losses, which the Philadelphia 76ers over the course of two seasons from late in the 2014-15 season through early 2015-16.
The Pistons started the game hot, bursting out the gate to a 9-1 lead just three minutes into the contest. The lead stretched even more after starting forward Bojan Bogdanovic hit a corner three-pointer and a midrange jumper to push it to 20-7.
Shortly after taking that 13-point lead, the Pistons Achillies’ heel began to show – the team’s lack of bench productivity. After the team’s first substitute – bringing in rookie guard Marcus Sasser for Jaden Ivey – the Pistons were outscored 18-11 over the final six minutes of the quarter, dropping their lead to 31-25 after one.
The home team kept that six-point lead, 36-30, after exchanging early baskets to start the second, but the Nets reeled off a 12-2 run, fueled by multiple baskets from both starting forward Mikal Bridges and reserve forward Royce O’Neale put Brooklyn ahead 42-38 halfway through the quarter, and taking a 61-56 lead into halftime.
The third quarter ended much like the second one, though, with the Nets taking a slight advantage into the next period after a series of mini-runs and hot-and-cold streaks from each squad.
Pistons Head Coach Monty Williams said after the game that the way the team started the game wasn’t unlike how they’re started other games.
“The way we’ve started is something we’ve seen a lot this year – to have a start like that then let it go in the second quarter,” he said prior to shifting the conversation to the team’s historically bad losing streak.
“We have to be real about where we are. Nobody wants something like this attached to them. The bottom line is that it’s my job, my responsibility. When you look at the record, coaches are graded on their records. That’s the bottom line, but in relationship to Cade, he got in some foul trouble early and I knew he was going to put it on his shoulders to get us back in it in the second half,” Williams added.
“I’m sure the players don’t want that attached to the names on the jersey. Heavy? I mean, it’s been heavy for a while, this kind of losing streak. And it’s not going to change because we’re grading the level of it. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to change it.
“Is it heavy? Yeah…Nobody wants this kind of thing attached to them. I was brought in here to change this thing. It’s probably the most on me than anybody. Players are playing their hearts out. I’ve got to get them in a position where they don’t feel tight or heavy, so that’s on me.”
After an obviously emotional Williams left the post-game press conference, Cunningham came to the podium – this time fierier than his previous address when he stated emphatically that the team was not as bad as their record had indicated.
“Don’t jump off the boat,” he said in his locker room address to his teammates after the loss. “We gotta stay together. Right now is the easiest time to stand off and be on your own, but we need the team to lean on each other, push each other, and hold each other accountable more than ever now,” Cunningham said.
“We set a high standard and a good bar for this game early on, but we just didn’t maintain it. Staying locked in with the game plan, even with subs and new lineups being out there is important. The bench staying into it is important. Everybody staying on the same page is key. We gotta stay desperate.”
The Pistons have a tall task ahead of them to avoid overtaking the 76ers for the NBA’s outright worst losing streak of all time, with a road game on Dec. 28 against the Boston Celtics – owners of the league’s best record at 23-6 – and a home matchup against the 11-18 Toronto Raptors on Dec. 30.
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