Pistons must beat Raptors to avoid unwanted history

The Detroit Pistons came agonizingly close to ending their record-breaking losing streak on Thursday, falling 128-122 in overtime against the host Boston Celtics after holding a 19-point halftime lead.

The Pistons have dropped 28 straight, the all-time record for a single season. They now share the record for consecutive defeats with the Philadelphia 76ers, who lost 28 straight spanning the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.

Detroit will try to avoid owning that record on its own and going winless in two consecutive months when it hosts the Toronto Raptors on Saturday.

The Pistons squandered their big lead against the Celtics by getting outscored 35-16 in the third quarter. Detroit rallied from a six-point deficit late in the fourth quarter to force overtime, then gave up 20 points in the extra session.

“We’re on the same level as all these teams we’re playing against,” said guard Cade Cunningham, who produced 31 points and nine assists at Boston. “There’s no team that I’ve ever come across in the NBA where I felt like I was going into a slaughterhouse. I’ve never felt like that in my life, going into a basketball game. So every game we should be able to fight teams and impose our will on them.

“We did that early on. We kind of let go of the rope a little bit in the third quarter. But there’s a lot of growth and something we can learn from and definitely take to the next game.”

The Pistons had a 57-43 rebounding advantage but committed 19 turnovers, which Boston turned into 27 points. Detroit, which ranks near the bottom of the league in 3-point shooting, made just 32.6 percent of its long-distance attempts.

“Obviously, we had a tough third quarter and the ability to fight back from that and have an even fourth was tremendous,” Pistons coach Monty Williams said. “I hurt for them and we feel like we’re getting so close to not just winning one game but winning a lot of games, if we play this way versus most teams in the league.”

The problem is the Pistons haven’t shown that type of grit and determination during much of the streak. A case in point was their first meeting with the Raptors, a 142-113 Toronto win on Nov. 19.

Despite playing an exhausting overtime contest on Thursday, the Pistons will be the fresher team on Saturday. The Raptors will be playing the second game of a back-to-back set. They also lost a thriller in Boston, 120-118 on Friday. Luke Kornet’s alley-oop dunk in the final minute proved to be the decisive basket.

Toronto trailed by 15 after the first quarter and by 13 entering the fourth quarter. The Raptors, who have lost four of their past five, began the final quarter on a 23-6 run to go up 109-105, but they couldn’t hold onto the advantage.

Scottie Barnes led Toronto with 30 points and added 10 rebounds and five assists. Pascal Siakam had 27 points while playing 41 minutes.

“They made seven threes in the first quarter. After that, we found a rhythm and we were able to get back in the game,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “In the second half, our disposition was completely different.”

The Raptors used 11 players on Friday, but four of them played eight or fewer minutes. Rajakovic likely will need more out of his reserves with the quick turnaround.

“Every player that touches the floor needs to contribute,” he said. “We cannot have any empty minutes from any of the guys offensively and defensively.”

–Field Level Media

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