After a 28-winless streak, the longest in the NBA in a single season, the Detroit Pistons finally ended this negative record with a 129-127 win over the Toronto Raptors.
The Detroit franchise’s last win was on October 29th, when they beat the Chicago Bulls 118-102 to go 2-1 and kicked the season off on the right foot. After that, though, things did not go well for the Pistons as they could not catch a break and went on to lose 28 straight games.
The win over the Raptors may help the team morale after such a difficult time. The joy was immense after the game, and it almost brought the team’s coach Monty Williams to tears.
“I’ve been in a ton of locker rooms my whole life and that’s a first for me to have that kind of… it wasn’t relief it was just like, thank God, you know, finally,” Williams said.
“Guys were screaming I was almost in tears and I’m just so happy for our guys. I’m happy for everybody in the locker room.”
Once again, Cade Cunningham led the team with 30 points. The latter also admitted that not winning a single game in such a long time was starting to get tough for the Pistons, but he also praised his teammates for battling through such a difficult time.
“We just kept battling. It’s been a long, long stretch – all these losses – but I’m just happy to be a part of a group of guys that don’t quit and bring it every day and still stay positive and uplift each other,” Cunningham said after the game.
“It’s been weighing on us heavy everywhere we go for two months, which is unreal… for it to have been that long.
“It was a long time coming, something that we’ve been pushing for for so long and to finally get over that hump, we’re not trying to go back.
“Now it really begins where we see who we’re going to be and if we’re going to continue to play with that same fire that we’ve been playing with.”