The Detroit Pistons just completed a 23-win season that had plenty of bad losses.
At one point, it seemed they may never win again, as they were mired in a 14-game losing streak that looked like it might not end.
But if you look at the teams they played during that streak, most of them were good, and there were really only a few bad losses sprinkled in.
I don’t necessarily judge a bad loss by the score differential, as the Detroit Pistons were certainly blown out by some teams in much more lopsided games. This loss was bad because it was a game fans thought they might actually win and were hoping for a big showing from rookie Cade Cunnningham.
None of that happened, instead, the Pistons got drubbed by the lowly Orlando Magic, Cunningham struggled (so did everyone else) while the Magic’s Rookie of the Year candidate shined.
We’ve looked at the most surprising win of the season and one of the most satisfying, so today we’ll go to the other side and look at the worst loss.
Detroit Pistons: An embarrassing loss to the Orlando Magic
It’s one thing to get blown out by a good team on the road, it’s a much different thing to allow the Orlando Magic to come out and score 39 points in the first quarter to take a 20-point lead, which is what happened in this game on January 28th.
The Pistons put themselves into a hole they couldn’t climb out of, especially the way they shot the ball. Detroit shot just 36.8 percent from the field as a team and just about everyone contributed to the effort.
Cade Cunningham went 3-of-17 for eight points. Saddiq Bey had 17 points but shot just 5-of-14 overall. The two combined for 2-for-11 from 3-point range.
The only thing that kept this game as “close” as the final 119-103 score, was the fact that the Detroit Pistons shot 11 more free throws as a team.
The worst part was that fellow rookie Franz Wagner had a very good game, notching an efficient 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting and winning the battle of top rookies.
Three out of the five Pistons’ starters failed to reach double digits and the team was led by journeyman Trey Lyles with 18 points off the bench.
This was not a fun game to watch and extended the Detroit Pistons’ losing steak to four games in what would ultimately be a stretch where they won just once in 13 games.
There were many low points to the 2021-22 season, but getting blown out by Orlando in one of Cade Cunningham’s worst games certainly ranks near the top of the list.