The Detroit Pistons’ misery is reaching historic proportions.
Detroit’s 24-game losing streak is the third longest in a single season in NBA history. The 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers dropped 26 straight.
When losing streaks spanning two seasons are added in, the Pistons’ slide is tied for fourth all-time. Philadelphia (2014-15, 2015-16) lost 28 straight and Cleveland (1981-82, 1982-83) dropped 24 straight.
Detroit will try to avoid moving further up the list when it hosts the Utah Jazz on Thursday.
After enduring 32-point blowouts in back-to-back nights at Philadelphia and Milwaukee last week, the Pistons were at least competitive in Atlanta on Monday. They scored 72 second-half points but couldn’t overcome another slow start and fell 130-124 to the Hawks.
Cade Cunningham did all he could to halt the skid, pouring in a career-high 43 points and adding seven assists and three steals.
One thing Cunningham hasn’t lost is his spirit. He also is doing his part to keep his teammates’ spirits up.
There are a lot of things the Pistons need to fix. They are tied with the Memphis Grizzlies as the worst 3-point shooting team in the league (33.2 percent). They commit the second-most turnovers in the league, 16.4 per game. On defense, they rank in the bottom 10 in points allowed and field-goal percentage.
Utah will be playing the second game of a road back-to-back set after losing 124-116 to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday.
That was a bad defeat for the Jazz considering Cleveland was missing its top three scorers.
The Cavs pulled away by outscoring the Jazz 32-23 in the fourth quarter.
Utah has a dismal 2-13 road record, which should give the Pistons some hope.
Markkanen had 26 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday, and Collin Sexton supplied 20 points. They were traded to Utah prior to last season as part of the blockbuster that brought high-scoring guard Donovan Mitchell — who missed the Wednesday game with an illness — to Cleveland.
