The Pistons have lost 9 straight, the longest streak in the NBA

No one likes a losing streak.

Entering the 2023-24 basketball season, experts had the Pistons pegged as a team with a chance to double its win total from last year and get close to 30 wins, but the first month of the season has been rough.

Entering Friday night’s game in Cleveland, the Pistons are 2-10, which is the worst record in the NBA and in last place in the Eastern Conference. They have lost nine straight. The good news is the Pistons haven’t been blown out in any of the nine games and should be getting healthier soon.

Sports fans know that the best Michigan sportsbooks have markets on every Piston game home and away while DraftKings and PointsBet also offer wagers on future NBA performances like who will be Rookie of the Year and NBA MVP. The Pistons odds to make the playoffs are still low.

Not So Fine Nine

The stats show that the Pistons have actually played much better than their record. Detroit ranks 19th in the NBA allowing 115.2 points a night and have scored 110.6 (22nd in the NBA). They are 24th in scoring margin of 4.6 points.

That doesn’t exactly project as a .500 team, but it does show the Pistons should have a couple more wins at least.

Cade Cunningham has been the Pistons only healthy star. He leads the NBA in minutes played, but also turnovers and fouls. Rookie Ausar Thompson has become a force on the boards with 10.3 rebounds a game.

The biggest reason for the Pistons woes is the injuries. Center Jalen Duran hasn’t played in a week. Joe Harris hurt his shoulder but should be back before Thanksgiving and Bojan Bogdanovic should have his calf injury reevaluated in a week.

Streaking in Detroit

Losing streaks are a part of any NBA teams’ history. The longest losing streak in NBA history belongs to the 76ers, who lost 28 games bridging the 2014-15 and 2015-16 season.

The Pistons also had a nine-game losing streak in 2021. Detroit’s longest losing streak in franchise history is 21, which spanned the 1979-1980 seasons. Props to you if you know who the Pistons coach was at the start of the 1979 season.

The number to watch is 14. The Pistons have lost 14 games in a row three times. After that, then it gets scary.

By the way, the Pistons coach in 1979 was famous college basketball announcer Dick Vitale. He was fired 12 games into the season.

The Next Stretch

Detroit plays its next two games on the road. They are at the 5-6 Cavs Friday night and are 9.5-point underdogs according to DraftKings.

Then they’re at Toronto, who is also 5-6, then back home in Little Caesars Arena to play defending NBA champs Denver in one of the marquee games on the schedule. They go to 7-4 Indiana after that and then host Washington. The Wizards are the team right above the Pistons in the standings at 2-9.

There’s no gimme wins in that stretch, but the Pistons keep playing hard and should get healthier.

By:Darren Cooper

Born and raised in Louisiana, Darren Cooper has a fond appreciation for bayous, Mardi Gras beads and the sports betting industry. Darren has worked for multiple print and online publications since 1998, primarily as a sports columnist in the Northeast. He’s covered a Super Bowl (it was a blowout), the World Series (same) and the NBA Draft (man, those guys are tall). For the last few years he’s dug deep into the sports gambling industry as it exploded across America, learning how the legal sausage is made and how while all the sportsbooks look the same, they all have different identities and styles. He’s learned to always bet within his means -- and take the under. When not in front of his computer creating, Darren spends time with his three boys. He runs, reads and is always looking for the next big thing to write about.