About a year ago, the Detroit Pistons were in a stretch in which they dropped 34 of 35 games en route to a 68-loss season.
Now, the Pistons are showing massive improvement and can go over .500 with a fifth straight win Wednesday night when they visit the slumping Brooklyn Nets.
The Pistons are 17-13 since losing five of their first six games and began their turnaround with a 106-92 win in Brooklyn on Nov. 3. Detroit is 7-1 in its past eight games since a seven-point home loss to the Utah Jazz dropped its record to 11-17 on Dec. 19.
Detroit is in position to win five straight for the first time since March 2-10, 2019, en route to a 41-41 finish.
The Pistons own four wins by four points or fewer in this hot stretch, and the latest was Monday’s 118-115 home win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Cade Cunningham scored 24 of his 32 points in the second and third quarters, while Tim Hardaway Jr. added 11 of his season-high 26 in the fourth quarter to help the Pistons overcome a 22-point deficit.
“It’s huge, man. It’s huge,” Detroit’s Jalen Duren said of getting to .500. “Guys who’ve been through the ups and downs of our short careers and now getting here and being .500, it’s huge. We just want to keep building on it. Long season to go, but this is a great starting point, starting off the new year undefeated. We’re going to keep growing, keep pushing, keep building.”
Cunnigham has three of his six 30-point games this season during Detroit’s past eight contests. His big night against Portland came after he finished with a season-high 40 against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday.
The Nets are 4-13 in their past 17 since notching road wins over the Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings during a three-game winning streak in late November.
Brooklyn has played the last two games without its top scorers, as Cam Thomas (hamstring) is out until at least Jan. 21 and Cameron Johnson (ankle) will miss his third straight game on Wednesday.
The Nets will also be without D’Angelo Russell (shin) after he was injured in the first half of Saturday’s 123-94 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Ben Simmons tweaked his calf in warmups Saturday and is questionable.
The Nets endured their ninth double-digit loss during their slide, trailing by as many as 24 in Monday’s 113-99 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Brooklyn also dropped its sixth straight home game as it shot 41.8 percent and was held under 100 points for the ninth time this season.
Reserve Day’Ron Sharpe totaled 16 and 13 rebounds and Tyrese Martin added 15 points, but Nic Claxton was held to four points on 2-of-10 shooting after reaching double figures in three straight games.
“We just got to finish. I feel like we got some pretty good looks, honestly. We just didn’t make enough shots,” Claxton said after the Nets scored 33 second-chance points on Monday. “I don’t have the box score in front of me, but I don’t know if that was really on the coaches. I think it was more so on us. We got to make shots.”
–Field Level Media
