This is the 9th longest losing streak in NBA history, tied with several other teams. Currently sitting at .087, the Pistons haven't won a game since before Halloween.
This is how soon the Pistons might break this losing streak record again, if they continue to lose all their games:
- 13 December vs PHI – Their very next game; if they were to lose this, they'd move up to the 8th-longest losing streak.
- 16 December @ MIL – This is game 26 and the second night of a back-to-back on the road against a good team. If they lose this they will have lost 23 in a row and jump to 5th place (tied).
- 21 December vs UTA – The Jazz, currently 7 and 16, are the Pistons' best chance to pick up a win in December. Other than one game on the road against the Hawks, and the 30 December game against Toronto, every other game the Pistons will play in this stretch is against a team that's above .500.
- 26 December vs BRK – Losing this would give them the longest losing streak ever within a single season, having lost a staggering 27 games in a row.
- 30 December vs TOR – Failing to win another game until the end of the year would give the Pistons the undisputed longest losing streak in NBA history.
- 10 January @ SAS – This is Detroit's next game against a comparably bad team, nearly a month from now. Whether or not Detroit is still on its streak by then, this will be a highly-anticipated game between two extremely terrible franchises. If Detroit can't win this, they will be on a 35-game losing streak, and their next best chance to win a game will be on 15 January, against Washington.
The Pistons, who have won 2 out of their 23 games so far, have to win 1 out of their next 9 games to avoid having the worst-ever losing streak in NBA history. Now, as bad as the Pistons are, it would be extremely difficult for them to not pick up a random win somewhere in the next month. And even if they do manage the longest-ever losing streak, for them to keep losing much longer than that would stretch the bounds of credibility.
To put their terrible season in perspective, they need only win 7 more games in the entire remainder of the season to avoid being the worst NBA team of all time.
But let's say that they keep losing, as a thought experiment. How deep of a hole would they dig? How long would it take to hit a point of no return? Pretty long, actually.
- 1 March vs CLE – Game 59. If the Pistons lose every game from now until this game, they would still have a good chance to escape being the worst team in NBA history; they'd need to win about 30% of their remaining games. The Pistons haven't had a season better than .303 since 2018-2019.
- 18 March @ BOS – Game 68. With only 14 games left in the season, the Pistons would need to win half of those to avoid being worse than the 2012 Bobcats.
- 3 April @ ATL – Game 76. After this point, it is now impossible for them to avoid being worse than the 2012 Bobcats.
- 14 April @ SAS – Game 82. Darkness.
this is the first (and hopefully last) time I have ever cared about NBA basketball and I am rooting for a team to make history and lose like no one has ever lost before. This is hilarious.
