Niyo: It's bad, boys! Pistons sail into uncharted water with 27 straight losses
The Detroit News - December 27, 2023
The Detroit Pistons host the Brooklyn Nets at Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit, Tuesday night, December 26, 2023.
Detroit — There’s a word for what we’re watching with these Pistons.
And, ironically, it’s the same word their owner used last week, when Tom Gores was asked what he’d say to the fans who were chanting “Sell the team!” again at the end of another excruciating loss at Little Caesars Arena.
It’s ridiculous, is what it is. And it only became more so in the wake of Tuesday night’s 118-112 defeat at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets on the Pistons’ home court.
This loss was Detroit’s 27th in a row, setting a new single-season record for the longest skid mark in the NBA. And the emotional toll of it wasn’t merely visible on the court as the final seconds ticked off the clock and reality hit home. It was audible again, as the boos rained down and the jeers began to replace the cheers.
Pistons forward Kevin Knox II, from left, guard Marcus Sasser, forward Ausar Thompson and
forward Bojan Bogdanovic sit on the bench during the fourth quarter of a 118-112 loss to
the Nets at Little Caesars Arena, an NBA record 27th straight loss.
DUANE BURLESON, AP
This wasn’t history. This is infamy, and they all knew it.
“I don't think anybody in our locker room or on our staff has ever been through anything like this,” said Pistons coach Monty Williams, whose team hasn’t won a game in nearly two full months of trying. “I don't have any reference point for that.”
Cade Cunningham certainly doesn’t, either. And after the Pistons’ young cornerstone piece had done his part to try and end this misery, scoring 37 of his game-high 41 points in the second half Tuesday, the 22-year-old broke the silence in his own locker room by making an impassioned plea to his teammates: “Don’t jump off the boat.”
“We gotta stay together,” said Cunningham, whose 41-point night was two off the career high he set just last week in a loss at Atlanta. “Right now is the easiest time to stand off and be on your own. But we need to continue to lean on each other and continue to push each other and hold each other accountable more than ever.”
Detroit Pistons head coach Monty Williams shouted instructions to his team in the second quarter. Detroit Pistons vs Brooklyn Nets, Little Caesars Arena, December 26, 2023, Detroit, MI.
CLARENCE TABB JR., DETROIT NEWS
Nobody wanted to wear this, obviously. Not Cunningham, the former No. 1 overall pick who’s supposed to be the face of this franchise. Not Williams, the former NBA coach of the year who was brought here to lead the Pistons back to respectability. Not Troy Weaver, the general manager who was asked to build a winner here 3 ½ years ago, either.
And, clearly, not the team owner, who finally felt compelled to address all the fan unrest surrounding this disastrous start late last week, telling a group of Pistons beat writers in a 40-minute Zoom call, “change is coming.”
As for what that change might be, or when it will come, or how meaningful it could possibly be at this point in a season that’s already hopelessly lost, Gores couldn’t really say.
And once again, his team couldn’t come up with the answer on its own Tuesday night.
Cunningham’s three-pointer had given the Pistons a 97-92 lead with 8:09 remaining, but things unraveled from there as the Nets went on a 13-0 run over the next few minutes. And after a driving layup from Cunningham brought his team to within 112-110 with 57 seconds left, Brooklyn’s Dorian Finney-Smith buried a three-pointer that felt like a dagger with 38 seconds left.
Williams called a timeout to gather his team, but the Nets took away the first option (Cunningham) on the play he drew up, and when veteran Alec Burks missed a rushed three-point attempt, the game was all but over.
The streak, however, was very much alive.
'It weighs on us every day'
“We can’t get away from it,” Cunningham said. “It weighs on us every day."
Which is why he felt compelled to weigh in again after this loss.
“He talked passionately about the things we need to do and how everybody has to be in the boat and accountable for where we are," Williams said. "We have to be real about where we are. Nobody wants something like this attached to them.”
But now that it is, they can’t give up. That was Cunningham’s message, delivered on the court in that second-half performance and again behind closed doors.
"A lot of the load is on me — on the court, in the locker room,” he said. “Every day I try to lead the squad. I haven't been successful with that: 2-28. So it's only right I speak for it, be the face for it. Everyone cares in that locker room.”
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) scores over Brooklyn Nets
forward Dorian Finney-Smith (28) in the fourth quarter.
Detroit Pistons vs Brooklyn Nets, Little Caesars Arena, December 26, 2023, Detroit, MI.
CLARENCE TABB JR., DETROIT NEWS
Williams was saying much the same afterward, when asked whether all these losses piled on top of each other had become unbearable for the players, particularly at crunch time.
“Again, when you look at records, you think of coaches,” he said. “But I’m sure the players don’t want that attached to the name on the jersey. Was it heavy? I mean, it’s been heavy for a while. That’s just the nature of this kind of losing streak. And it’s not gonna change because we’re grading the level of it.”
No, it won't, even if this was better than some of the others, despite an awkward start. The first possession ended in a turnover by Bojan Bogdanovich. The first shot was an airball three-point attempt from Jaden Ivey. But the Pistons did scratch and claw their way to an early double-digit lead in this, going up 22-8 on a Jalen Duren tip dunk midway through the first quarter.
The Nets eventually did what every other team has done the last two months, though. And when Cunningham drove the lane and lost the ball, and the Nets' Mikal Bridges knocked down a short jumper to give Brooklyn its first lead of the night, 39-38, the crowd responded with some scattered boos. There were more a possession later, after another Pistons turnover – Burks inadvertently threw a pass off Isaiah Stewart’s face on a fastbreak — and a three-pointer by the Nets’ Royce O’Neale.
The freefall continues
And, frankly, this is just another reason why it’s so hard for teams to pull out of a freefall once it reaches terminal velocity. It’s also why Gores was practically pleading with his fans last Friday.
“I’d ask the fans to prop them up,” he said, before adding later, "Blame me. Support them."
They did both Tuesday night, to their credit. It was nearly a packed house, and the noise in the fourth quarter was nothing like what you’d expect for a franchise that has lost 47 of its last 51 games dating back to the end of last season.
“We appreciate it,” Williams said. “I mean, that's something that we as a team, me as a coach, we all feel bad when you have your fans stick with you and over the Christmas holiday come out and watch you play — it was a really good crowd tonight — and it’s just unfortunate that we couldn't come up with a win.”
Unfortunately, that’s about all the fans expect from the Pistons these days. And after all the losing on Gores’ watch since he took over this franchise in 2011, it’s perfectly reasonable for the fans to call for change at the top, as unrealistic as that might be.
“I mean, sure, they can say what they want,” Gores said. “But that's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.”
He went on to explain why he felt that way, talking about all the community involvement and outreach the Pistons have done since they moved back downtown, including partnering with Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University on a $2.5 billion development plan in Detroit's New Center area.
But this isn't about that, and he knows it. This is about a franchise that’s one of only a handful to win multiple NBA titles in the last 40 years but has just one winning season — and zero playoff wins — since 2008. It’s about an owner who has tried and failed miserably to give the people what they really want — “We're just not winning,” Gores said — and a fanbase that’s tired of waiting for him to “figure out how to right the ship,” as he put it last week.
Gores insists this "ship isn't sinking," but it has sailed into uncharted waters. And there's no sign of land on the horizon.
jniyo@detroitnews.com
@JohnNiyo
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