Detroit Pistons’ new D-Day as team seeks to avoid equaling the longest losing streak in American sports history
By Issy Ronald, CNN
(CNN) — It’s another D-Day for the Detroit Pistons. The team have set several unwanted records this season and are on the cusp of another when they take on the Toronto Raptors on Saturday – if the Pistons are vanquished they would equal the longest losing streak in major American professional sports history.
Not since the Chicago Cardinals’ 29 straight NFL losses between 1942 and 1945 have an American team endured such a long losing streak as the Pistons, who have already been on an unrivaled single-season of NBA failure with their 28 losses.
Their 28th loss was a heartbreaking 128-122 one to the high-flying Boston Celtics in overtime on Thursday, after the Pistons had let a 19-point halftime lead slip in the third quarter.
“I hurt for them, you know we feel like we’re just getting so close to not just winning one game but winning a lot of games if we play that way versus most teams in the league,” Pistons head coach Monty Williams told reporters afterwards.
“I just told them that it takes a lot of character and integrity to do what they’re doing … I’ve seen teams give in to circumstances tougher than what we’re dealing with.”
The losing streak is a brutal disappointment for a team that has tried to rebuild through youth the last few seasons with high draft picks – including guard Cade Cunningham with the No. 1 overall pick in 2021, and Ausar Thompson with the No.5 pick this year – and by luring Williams to the Pistons this year with a hefty coaching contract.
However, instead of offering glimpses of future success, this Pistons team has joined the pantheon of the worst-ever NBA teams, belonging alongside the 1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers, the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, the 2015-16 Sixers and the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks.
In fact, it currently has a worse winning percentage than all those teams, with just a 0.065 record this season, compared to the 0.110 winning percentage amassed by the 1972-73 Sixers who hold the dubious record of the worst-ever NBA season.
With the youngest team in the league – averaging just 23.5 years old – a seeming lack of experience has been much in evidence amid the Pistons’ depressing losing streak.
“I would feel for any team that’s going through it; any of the other 29 teams, I would feel disappointed for them,” former Pistons star and now the NBA’s head of basketball operations Joe Dumars told the Athletic.
“It’s the Pistons — I feel for the organization, for the fans there. … I spent my whole career there. And so it’s tough to watch the guys go through that… I hope they can end the slide sometime soon.”
The Pistons tip off against the Toronto Raptors at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday.
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CNN’s Jason Hanna contributed to this report.
