Despite a 41-point performance from young star Cade Cunningham, the Detroit Pistons lost their 27th consecutive game on Tuesday, falling to the Brooklyn Nets 118-112. The defeat marks an NBA record for longest single-season losing streak.
The streak was previously held by the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers. Both of those teams concluded their respective seasons 19-63.
The Pistons are also one game from setting the all-time NBA losing streak record. The 76ers had a losing streak of 28 games that started at the end of the 2014-15 season and continued into the 2015-16 season. The Pistons next play the Boston Celtics, who have the best winning percentage this season in the NBA.
"You have to be real about where we are," Pistons head coach Monty Williams said. "Nobody wants something like this attached to them. The bottom line is it's my job. When you look at my job, coaches are graded on their record."
Williams said this game was weighing on his team.
"I am sure the players don't want that attached to the name on the jersey," he said. "It's been heavy for a while. It's just the nature of this kind of losing streak. That's not going to change because we are grading the level of it. We have to do what we got to do to change it."
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Cunningham said he has tried to keep a positive attitude but admits there is "nothing positive" about the Pistons' streak.
"I love what I do," he said. "I am blessed to be healthy and play. But there is nothing positive about the situation we have put ourselves in. We have to dig deep."
The Pistons are on track to have the worst record in NBA history. The previous worst record for a team in an 82-game season was the 1972-73 76ers, who ended the season 9-73. While the Pistons are 2-28 to start the season, Philadelphia that year started the year 3-27.
