The last time the Detroit Pistons tasted victory, trick-or-treaters hadn’t even collected their candy.
They’ve endured a stomach-churning 17 consecutive losses, a franchise record for a single season. Their last win came Oct. 28.
They’ll try once again to end their misery when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.
It’s one of two games recently scheduled by the NBA for every team that didn’t advance during the in-season tournament.
The Pistons suffered another agonizing home defeat on Saturday. They were down by only three points to Cleveland with four minutes to go but went scoreless until the last 35 seconds of a 110-101 loss.
One very positive development was the return of Bojan Bogdanovic, last season’s top scorer. Bogdanovic made his season debut after recovering from a calf strain and scored 22 points.
Bogdanovic’s perimeter threat eases some of the burden on Cade Cunningham, who had 23 points and 11 assists against the Cavs. Cunningham is averaging 22.4 points and 7.3 assists but also a league-high 4.4 turnovers.
Cunningham had only one turnover on Saturday, but Detroit still committed 16, which led to 21 Cleveland points.
The Grizzlies put together consecutive wins for the first time this season last week, defeating Utah and Dallas. In their most recent game on Saturday, they lost to Phoenix 116-109.
Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane have carried the load in recent games.
Jackson had 20 points, six rebounds and six blocks against the Jazz. He bounced back from a foul-plagued outing against the Mavs by racking up 37 points and nine rebounds against the Suns.
Jackson did most of his damage inside, battling Phoenix center Jusuf Nurkic.
Bane averaged 28.5 points and 5.0 assists the past two games.
The banged-up Grizzlies announced Monday they had signed Jaylen Nowell to a second 10-day contract using the hardship exception. Memphis has seven players sidelined by injuries, and star guard Ja Morant is still serving a 25-game suspension.
Nowell has played an average of 30 minutes over the past two games.
The Grizzlies and Pistons will play their two regularly scheduled games in April.
