The streak is over.
It was nervous time at the end. The Pistons were up seven with 24 seconds left but a Pascal Siakam corner 3 cut that to four. Then, after an exchange of free throws pushed the lead back to five, a Gary Trent Jr. 3-pointer made it a two-point game with just 2.2 seconds remaining. However, for the first time since before Halloween, the basketball gods smiled on the Pistons.
Detroit 129, Toronto 127.
The victory ends the Piston’s NBA record-tying 28-game losing streak.
“I feel amazing. This is my first time trying to not be cheesing right now. It feels good. It’s been a long time coming,” Cade Cunningham said postgame, via Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press. “Don’t want to go back to where we were.”
“It was a sense of relief, for sure, but I don’t think there’s the proverbial exhale. There’s still a lot of basketball to play,” coach Monty Williams added.
Double-doubles for Cade & JD:
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) December 31, 2023
🔹Cade Cunningham: 28 PTS / 12 AST
🔹Jalen Duren: 14 PTS / 16 REB
Under two minutes left in the fourth pic.twitter.com/JZ6f5Fd6MK
It doesn’t matter to the Pistons that this was a perfect storm for them. The Raptors are not very good to begin with (12-20), playing the second night of a road back-to-back and their third game in four days, plus they were shorthanded after earlier in the day the team traded OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn. The Raptors were still a little off-balance from the trade.
Detroit got 30 points and 12 assists in another impressive outing from Cade Cunningham, who has looked much better since Williams focused on getting what little shooting the Pistons have around their shot-creator. Bogdanovic added 19 points, Jalen Duren had 18 with 17 rebounds, and Alec Burks had a strong game off the bench with 16 points.
Toronto watched Pascal Siakam increase his trade value with 35 points, Dennis Schroder gave a “don’t move me to the bench when Quickley gets here” 30 points, and Gary Trent Jr. added 24. Toronto’s offense was good (123.3 offensive rating for the night) but they couldn’t get stops or keep the Pistons off the free-throw line. That was the biggest difference in the game, an aggressive Pistons team shot a dozen more free throws.
The end of the losing streak does not mean everything is fine in Detroit — this is still a poorly constructed roster with a lot of questions about the long-term direction. Changes still need to be made. There is a lot of work to do for the Pistons.
But the losing streak is over, and they should exhale and celebrate a little for a night.
