Bojan Bogdanovic and Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons on December 26, 2023 during the game against the Brooklyn Nets in Detroit. DUANE BURLESON / AP
This is a record that the Detroit Pistons would have done well without. By losing on Wednesday, December 26, against the Brooklyn Nets (112-118) after a fierce battle, the Michigan team suffered a 27th defeat in a row this season in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Under the boos of their supporters, urging the owners of the franchise to “sell the team”, the partners of leader Cade Cunningham (41 points) now alone hold the record for the number of consecutive defeats in a season. Their last victory dates back to October 28, against the Chicago Bulls.
“No one wants to have that kind of record associated with their name, so it’s hard for everyonenoted Pistons coach Monty Williams after the meeting. This series is for me. The players are doing their best, and it’s up to me to put them in a position where they can no longer feel heavy-headed. » Recruited in the offseason to put the Michigan franchise back on its feet, the American technician has failed, for the moment.
If they have been floundering in mediocrity for around fifteen years, and seem to have hit rock bottom on Wednesday, the Detroit Pistons are a historic team in the big North American basketball league. With three titles – won in 1989, 1990 and 2004 – only five franchises have won more NBA Larry O’Brien trophies than Detroit’s players, who had acquired a reputation as “Bad Boys” in the late 1990s. 1980, at the height of the working-class history of “Motor City”.
Read our series: Article reserved for our subscribers “Planète NBA”: diving into the heart of a basketball league with global ambitions
A series of unfortunate choices
Engaged in a prolonged reconstruction phase since the start of the 2008-2009 season, when the then boss, the general manager Joe Dumars – former historic leader of the team – had chosen to implode the squad which won the 2004 title, the franchise did not recover. The NBA being a closed league, the Pistons do not risk demotion, but they also do not manage to benefit from the help of the draft – this kind of player exchange where the worst teams can recover the best young people , aimed at rebalancing the league.
Bad luck in the lottery – the Pistons saw, last summer, the San Antonio Spurs win the first choice of the draft, and with it the right to select the French phenomenon Victor Wembanyama – or lack of flair during the choices – Frenchman Sekou Doumbouya, selected in 15th position in 2019, is part of a series of unfortunate choices.
Read the portrait: Article reserved for our subscribers Victor Wembanyama, the French basketball star in the spotlight of the NBA
If, on Wednesday, the players quickly exfiltrated towards the locker room after this new defeat, the star of the team, Cade Cunningham, did not shy away from the media. “I’m entrusted with a lot of things, on and off the field, and every day I try to lead the teamsaid the young player (22 years old), who is only playing his third NBA season. With two victories and 28 defeats [cette saison], I didn’t succeed. But it’s normal that I respond to this series. In the locker room, everyone is worried about it. »
Thursday, in a back to back (two meetings in as many evenings), the Detroit Pistons travel to the floor of the Boston Celtics, the best team in the League this season. In the event of another defeat, the Michigan players could equal a new sad record: that of the number of defeats in a row for the Philadelphia Sixers – which was spread over two seasons, in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. The partners of French leader Killian Hayes are struggling to get through a season which risks reaching abyss of mediocrity.