The Detroit Pistons are back in the winner’s circle. Finally.
After 28 straight defeats, the Pistons held off the Toronto Raptors 129-127 on Sunday to snap their record-breaking losing run.
Cade Cunningham was quiet in the first half but stepped up in a big way in the second, scoring 26 points and 30 overall while dishing out 12 assists and — crucially — not turning the ball over once.
Toronto had four players score over 20 points, with Pascal Siakam leading the way on 35, Dennis Schroder had 28 while Gary Trent Jr. finished on 24 and Scottie Barnes had 22.
Points were hard to come by elsewhere though as Detroit’s bench outscored Toronto 33-12.
Detroit’s 28 consecutive losses tied the league record set by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2015.
Cunningham had a team-high 31 points in the 128-122 overtime loss to the Celtics, which will go down in the record books as the final defeat of Detroit’s losing skid.
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The Pistons were finding plenty of opportunities for points driving towards the rim against the Raptors but lacked the final finishing touch, with Jalen Duren missing a pair of layups in short succession.
While Duren’s finishing at the rim left a bit to desired early he was making up for it with hustle plays on the boards, recording seven rebounds in his first eight minutes on the court.
Toronto jumped ahead 14-10 after six minutes as Detroit took a timeout, with Siakam — who has been the subject of trade rumours — leading the way with five points and two rebounds.
The challenge for the Pistons came in the latter stage of the first quarter as Monty Williams took out their starters, playing an all-reserves line-up with neither team well on top at that point.
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The all-bench unit didn’t just keep in touch with the Raptors — they took the lead, going ahead 25-24 after the first quarter on the back of 11 points from Alec Burks, who made two 3-pointers and a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line.
Bojan Bogdanovic, meanwhile, was heavily involved in the second quarter as the Pistons maintained their lead against a Raptors team that just couldn’t find any real rhythm on offence.
That isn’t a surprise, of course, given Toronto was without O.G. Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn following Sunday’s trade involving the New York Knicks.
A pair of clutch 3-pointers from Kevin Knox II saw the Pistons push their lead out to 10 points before a driving layup from Schroder cut the Detroit difference to 52-44 at halftime.
Knox II finished the half with 10 points while Bogdanovic had eight points and five rebounds.
What would have been particularly pleasing for the Pistons was the fact they had a 52-44 lead despite only getting four points from Cunningham, who shot 1-for-8 from the floor.
Elsewhere, it was a particularly poor opening half for the Raptors, who shot 34.8 per cent from the floor and had just six points from their bench with Schroder (14) the leading scorer at halftime.
The Pistons had led the Celtics by 19 points before being run down in overtime in their last start, so a fast start in the third quarter on Sunday was particularly important.
A turnover though immediately led to points for Toronto and suddenly the Raptors were within four points and threatening to quickly regain the lead.
The Pistons, to their credit, responded in swift fashion to push the buffer back out to 10 points as an assertive Knox II continued to make big plays.
The Raptors refused to go away and took the lead at one point, with Siakam scoring 20 points in the period.
The Pistons were able to hold onto a 90-86 advantage heading into the fourth after a timely explosion from Cunningham, who had 12 points, six assists and one rebound in the third.
It seemed like every time the Pistons opened up a lead they quickly found themselves in danger of losing it and that was the case again early in the fourth as Detroit went ahead 94-86, only for Toronto to cut that down to 94-93 in a matter of minutes.
But back-to-back 3-pointers from Cunningham and Jaden Ivey looked to have the Pistons in a strong position entering the final six minutes of the game, leading 110-99.
The Raptors were able to get within five points as the Pistons gave up a few easy buckets but a locked-in Cunningham hit the mid-range jumper to push it back out to seven.
Sensing his team’s inexperience may be showing at the worst-possible time, coach Williams called a timeout with three minutes left and Detroit up 114-107.
The Raptors had several chances to reduce the deficit in the final few minutes but just couldn’t get shots to fall. Cunningham, on the other hand, was clutch.
Having played some of the best basketball of his career recently, it was fitting that Cunningham would step up when the Pistons needed him the most to deliver a long-awaited win to suffering Detroit fans.
BUTLER INJURED AGAIN IN HEAT LOSS
Elsewhere, Jimmy Butler’s return from injury was short-lived as the Miami superstar failed to finish the Heat’s 117-109 loss to the Utah Jazz.
Butler had missed the team’s last four games with a calf injury but only managed 23 minutes on Sunday before leaving the game with what the Heat called a right foot injury.
Butler had eight points, two rebounds and an assist, heading to the locker room with just over six minutes on the clock in the third quarter as Miami led 71-66.
The Jazz went on to tie the game at 88-all heading into the final quarter as Kelly Olynyk and Keyonte George combined to score 40 points off the bench in the win.
Olynyk, who has been linked in a trade to Boston, had 19 points, six rebounds, 10 assists, one steal and a block while Collin Sexton — also a name to watch ahead of the deadline — led the Jazz with 22 points.
Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo, meanwhile, combined to score 53 points for the Heat but R.J. Hampton struggled in the starting line-up, playing a scoreless eight minutes as Haywood Highsmith instead got the nod to open the third quarter.
