Los Angeles (AFP) – The Detroit Pistons set an NBA record for futility on Tuesday, their 118-112 home defeat to the Brooklyn Nets stretching their losing streak to 27, the longest ever in a single season.
Cade Cunningham scored 41 points for the determined Pistons, but it wasn’t enough to give Detroit a first win since October 28.
They surpassed the 26-game losing streaks of the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers.
Detroit, an iconic franchise that won NBA titles in 1989, 1990 and 2004, are now one defeat away from matching the longest NBA losing streak ever, the 28-game slide of the 76ers that spanned the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
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Cameron Johnson scored 24 points to lead Brooklyn and Mikal Bridges scored 12 of his 21 in the fourth quarter as the Nets thwarted the Pistons.
In a fourth quarter that featured four lead changes, back-to-back three-pointers from Bojan Bogdanovic and Cunningham saw the Pistons take a 97-92 with 8:10 remaining.
But the Nets responded with a 13-0 scoring run to take the lead for good.
Cunningham’s driving layup pulled the Pistons within two points with less than a minute to play, but they couldn’t get over the hump.
Bogdanovic scored 23 points, Jalen Duren added 12 points and 15 rebounds and Alec Burks added 15 points off the bench for Detroit.
The Nets, meanwhile, had six players score in double figures.
As the Nets were polishing off the scoring from the free-throw line, fans at Little Caesars Arena were again chanting “Sell the team”.
Pistons owner Tom Gores has already branded those calls “ridiculous” but conceded last week that something had to change — although he didn’t elaborate on what that might be
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– Playing their hearts out – “It weighs on us every day,” Cunningham said, but added that his message to teammates was one of solidarity.
“We need to continue to lean on each other and continue to push each other and hold each other accountable more than ever now,” he said.
Head coach Monty Williams said that he bore the ultimate responsibility for the team’s record, but added that it was a “heavy” load for everyone to carry.
“You have to be real about where we are,” Williams said.”
Nobody wants something like this attached to them …players are playing their hearts out.”
Well aware of what was at stake, the Pistons started with plenty of energy, racing to a 9-1.
Duren, sidelined since December 6 with a sprained ankle, returned and immediately made his presence felt, throwing down two dunks and an alley-oop layup off a feed from Cunningham in the first quarter.
Bogdanovic scored 11 in the first period for the Pistons, who led by as many as 14 on the way to a 31-25 lead through one quarter.
By halftime, however, the Nets were up 61-54.
But after Brooklyn stretched their lead to 11 early in the third quarter, the Pistons hit back, a Cunningham jump shot and two free throws from Bogdanovic giving them a 77-76 lead.
Cunningham scored 18 points in the third and 37 in the second half but the crowd of nearly 20,000 went home disappointed again.
