This was supposed to be the game, the best chance Detroit would have to end its franchise-longest 24-game losing streak for a couple of weeks. Utah was in town on the second night of a back-to-back, third game in four nights and with that the Jazz sat Lauri Markkanen, Keyonte George, Jordan Clarkson, and Talen Horton-Tucker (four of the team’s seven leading scorers).
Final score: Utah 119, Detroit 111.
The Pistons never led after the first quarter and now have lost 25 games in a row, falling to 2-26 on the season. It leaves them one loss short of the NBA single-season record losing streak of 26 games (2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers) and three games shy of the 28-game NBA record (the Philadelphia 76ers across the 2015 and 2016 seasons).
Cade on the 26-game record being near: “It’s definitely on my mind. That’s history that nobody wants to be a part of. We’re trying to build something that’s sustainable. It’s not like we’re just trying to win one game. We want to win multiple games.”
— Omari Sankofa II (@omarisankofa) December 22, 2023
As the game ended Detroit fans chanted, “Sell the team! Sell the team!” at owner Tom Gores of Platinum Equity, who had been in attendance.
“We’re not 2-26 bad — no way are we that bad,” said a defiant Cade Cunningham (via the Associated Press) after he put up 28 points and 10 assists in the loss. “I think we can turn this around. We can play a much better brand of basketball.”
Head coach Monty Williams was more frustrated with how they lost.
“I want to be careful with my words, because this one hurts more than most of them,” Williams said. “A team that played last night got (50) points off turnovers and rebounds. It is unbelievably hard to understand how we can get outworked in those categories.”
Detroit’s upcoming schedule is a home-and-home with Brooklyn (the Nets host Saturday, the Pistons host Tuesday), then at Boston, home to Toronto, then Detroit heads on the road for four games starting in Houston.
Kelly Olynyk led the Jazz with 25 points while Collin Sexton added 19.
