Detroit Pistons set NBA record with 27th straight loss

DETROIT -- It's history not many fans inside Little Caesars Arena were looking forward to experiencing Tuesday night, but the Detroit Pistons couldn't avoid NBA infamy, dropping their 27th straight game with a 118-112 loss to the Brooklyn Nets. It's the most consecutive losses in a single season in league history. The 76ers have the overall record, losing 28 straight, but that spanned the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.

Entering Tuesday's game, Pistons coach Monty Williams couldn't avoid the topic of the all-time losing mark -- something he said he didn't want his name connected to -- but it continues to weigh heavily on the franchise. "Again, when you look at records, you think of coaches, but I'm sure the players don't want that attached to the name on the jersey," Williams said. "Was it heavy? 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, we've got to do what we've got to do to change it." Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 overall pick in 2021, finished with a game-high 41 points to go along with 9 rebounds and 5 assists. He had 37 points in the second half alone, but now has lost all 10 career games when scoring 30 or more points -- the longest streak to start a career in NBA history, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. After the game, Cunningham addressed the team passionately in the locker room about the things it needs to fix, while telling teammates not to "jump off the boat" and to "stay together" as the losses continues to mount. "I don't think what I said was positivity, I think it's just being real ... there's nothing positive about this situation right now that we put ourselves in, so that's why we have to dig deep and get ourselves out of it," Cunningham said. "You can't get away from it. It weighs on us every day, I mean everywhere. It weighs on us." The Pistons got off to a fast start in the opening quarter, holding a double-digit lead (14 points) for the first time in a contest since Nov. 12 (against the Bulls). But they committed six turnovers in the second quarter and entered halftime trailing 61-54.