The Detroit Pistons completed one of the NBA’s greatest turnarounds on Friday as their 117-105 win against the Toronto Raptors secured their spot in the playoffs, just one season after they finished as the league’s worst team with a dismal 14 wins.
No other NBA team has ever reached the playoffs after winning so few games in the previous season.
“Honestly, right now, it’s hard to even put emotions together, but it’s a testament to all the hard work we put in since day one,” Pistons center Jalen Duren said afterwards. “We’re not done yet. Nowhere near satisfied. We’re going to keep going, keep growing and keep stacking.”
There was a time last year when it seemed as if the Detroit Pistons might never win again. They ended up mired in a 28-game skid, the joint-longest losing streak in NBA history and just one game shy of the longest losing streak in major American professional sports history, a record which belongs to the Chicago Cardinals who lost 29 straight games in the NFL between 1942 and 1945.
It was another win against the Raptors, ironically, in December 2023 that halted that streak. Eventually, the Pistons finished last season at 14-68 before making a remarkable turnaround this season, becoming the first ever NBA team to triple their win total from the season before.
So far this season, the Pistons have 43 wins, ensuring they will put together the franchise’s first winning season since 2015-16 and qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2018-19. They are currently the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s a big deal,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters afterward. “We typically don’t take time to reflect on where we are but this is an opportunity for this group to reflect on where it is, where it’s come from and what it’s been able to accomplish together. To turn it around the way they have and put themselves in this position to play in the postseason, it’s a big deal.”
Duren finished with 21 points and 18 rebounds against the Raptors on Friday while Tim Hardaway Jr. added 23 points, proving that their offense can be effective even without star Cade Cunningham.
Elsewhere, the Boston Celtics set a new NBA record for 3-pointers in the season as Payton Pritchard netted the franchise’s 1,364th triple to surpass the Golden State Warriors’ total they set two seasons ago.
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