Detroit Pistons' 25-game losing streak on edge of NBA record: 'History that nobody wants'

Cade Cunningham sat in front of the media Thursday at Little Caesars Arena, picked up the box score and took a long, quiet look.

The first question asked: Does this one feel different?

“Yeah,” Cunningham said, before pausing. The numbers: 20 turnovers, leading to 27 points for the Utah Jazz; 7-for-21 shooting in the fourth quarter, including 1-for-10 from behind the arc; six offensive rebounds given up in the final period for nine second-chance points in a 119-111 loss.

And, of course, the number not on the box score: 25. As in the consecutive losses for the Detroit Pistons, one short of the NBA's single-season record, held by the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers.

No. 25 came against a Utah Jazz team, on the second night of a back-to-back, with four of its top six scorers out for a variety of injuries.

Does this one feel different?

“Yeah,” Cunningham said a second time, after taking in the box score.

Somehow, as Cunningham's pauses indicated, the Pistons keep finding new ways to bottom out.

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The Jazz arrived in Detroit clearly in a holiday spirit, as they did their best to gift-wrap a win to a Pistons team that hasn't won since before another holiday — Halloween — can set the NBA record for consecutive losses a day after Christmas and is on pace to win just six of 82 games this season.

Utah’s top scorer, Lauri Markkanen, sat out after his team lost in Cleveland to a squad without its top three players (Darius Garland, Donavan Mitchell and Evan Mobley) a night prior.

Utah's second-highest scorer, Jordan Clarkson, also sat out with an injury. The Jazz's No. 5-6 scorers — Talen Horton-Tucker and Keyonte George — were out, too. That left a starting lineup including just two players scoring double figures this season — Collin Sexton and John Collins — neither averaging more than 15 points. In short, a rebuilding team also missing its top talent.

But the gap in execution between the two lottery-bound teams was clear. Take turnovers: The Jazz are the only team in the league averaging more per game than the Pistons. And yet, the ailing Jazz committed just 12. That, along with Utah's 23 second-chance points off 15 offensive rebounds, was the Pistons’ undoing, despite shooting 50% overall.

Fans at Little Caesars Arena booed in the first half as the Pistons gave up a brutal 26-5 run. They also booed at the end of the game and chanted "Sell the Team," when it became clear the franchise was knocking on history’s doorstep.

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If the Pistons don’t beat the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday, they’ll tie the single-season record. If, after Christmas, they lose to the Nets at LCA, they’ll own it.

Yes, they’re aware.

“It’s definitely on my mind,” Cunningham said after Thursday's loss. “That’s history that nobody wants to be part of. We’re trying to build something that’s sustainable. It’s not like we’re just trying to just go out there and win one game. We want to win multiple games. To be on the wrong side of history, nobody wants to be there. That is definitely an extra edge that we have to have, and we should’ve won this game. We didn’t, so gotta come back next game and be locked in. I gotta come in and be locked in and more solid down the stretch for us.”

Cunningham criticized himself during the post-game availability. He led all scorers with 28 points and added 10 assists and seven rebounds. He also turned the ball over six times; it was his 13th game with at least five, covering nearly half the Pistons' 28 games. Defensively, it was one of his worst efforts of the season.

A lot of failures — from the front office, coaching staff and players — have led the team to this point. And the No.1 overall pick in 2021 shouldn't be immune to that criticism. Although he has been the team’s best player this season, he still entered Friday leading the NBA in total turnovers. Depth is one thing; they need their franchise player to step up consistently.

Monday brought a career-high 43 points, albeit in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks; Thursday brought a 2-for-9 performance in the fourth quarter.

“We had a shot to win it,” Cunningham said Thursday. “Down the stretch, we weren’t solid enough. Me personally, I mean, six turnovers kills us. We had 20 as a team, gave up 27 points off of it. That kills us. I didn’t keep anybody in front of me today. That killed us. We’ve gotta be better. I’m sick right now. Sick.”

Utah was credited with 15 steals, but not because of their defensive prowess. The Pistons, for the umpteenth time, were just plain sloppy. They had baffling passes and were loose with their handles, issues that have plagued the team since their narrow opening loss in Miami. They’ve made little progress in that area since.

Those consistent miscues have been a big factor in the skid. The team has long been out of answers for them.

“It’s just carelessness,” head coach Monty Williams said after his 28th game with the franchise. “That’s the only way you can sum it up. It’s the same story — playing in a crowd, not being sure about where we need to go with the ball and being strong with the ball. It’s not gonna change. That’s a lot of turnovers for any game. You wanna stay around 12, 13. We kinda corrected it the last couple of games, but timely live-ball turnovers, and that many points off of turnovers, you lose by eight and give up 27 points off of those turnovers, it’s unexplainable.”

Once again, Detroit fell apart when Cunningham and Bojan Bogdanovic — whose quiet eight points on 3-for-12 shooting were 14 below his season average — headed to the bench. Williams had been staggering the two players' minutes, understanding that the team falls apart when the bench takes over. But he checked them out toward the end of the first quarter, and Detroit never regained its momentum, despite leading by eight points midway through the opening 12 minutes.

“We weren’t getting much bench production to begin with,” Williams said. “It has hurt us. We’ve tried to stagger those lineups to get those guys back in the game. It puts a lot of pressure on those guys to have to come back in and save the day. It’s on me to figure it out.”

The NBA's 2022-23 trade deadline was Feb. 9. The Pistons beat the San Antonio Spurs in double overtime Feb. 10. Since then? Four wins and 49 losses. It’s an unfathomably bad stretch of basketball, and one that has seemingly ingrained itself onto the psyche of the team.

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This team, in its fourth season under general manager Troy Weaver, shouldn’t be this bad. But it is.

Worse, the Pistons appear no closer to solving their issues as their losing streak captures national attention — "Pistons" was a trending topic on social media Thursday night — and threatens to reach infamy even before 2024 arrives.

And yet, at least one Piston believes.

“Yeah, we’re not '2-26 bad,' ” Cunningham said Thursday. “No way are we that bad. So, yes, I think we can turn it around. I think we can play a lot better brand of basketball than we’re playing right now. Not as far as the system that we’re playing or any of that, but just executing our game plans, taking care of the ball, keeping guys in front of you.

“It has nothing to do with the system. That’s just individual, that’s the players. We have to be better about that. Tonight, I was the head of that snake by far. Six turnovers, couldn’t keep nobody in front of me.”

Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons' 25-game losing streak near NBA record: 'History that nobody wants'