Pistons news: Another sweep, magic numbers and no scapegoats
The Detroit Pistons lost their 5th straight, this one to the Philadelphia 76ers, who had the game well in hand before the first quarter was even over.
Philly swept the four-game series against Detroit this season after sweeping all three games last year as the Eastern Conference continues to get fat off the terrible teams at the bottom. You have to wonder how many games a team like the Rockets might have won in the East getting to play eight games against the Pistons and Wizards.
The 76ers became the 19th team to sweep the Pistons this season and there is still a chance to add two more teams to the list with games remaining against Dallas and San Antonio.
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Detroit did this with their best player on the bench again, as Cade Cunningham was on the bench for the 4th straight game. He'll have to play in all three of the remaining contests to reach 65 games played, which would be a career-high.
Detroit is now one loss away from clinching the worst record in franchise history, so their magic number for historic futility is down to one. So who is going to take the blame for this mess?
The Detroit Pistons have no scapegoats
I've seen the word "scapegoat" used to refer to everyone from Monty Williams to Troy Weaver to Cade Cunningham, which leads me to believe a lot of people don't know what this word means.
To scapegoat is to unfairly blame someone, to make them take blame that doesn't belong to them or should be shared. There is no one you could blame unfairly, from the GM who put this lousy team together and has made them worse in four seasons, to the coach who barely bothered to show up, to the players who checked out and don't seem at all concerned about being on the receiving end of the toilet of history.
Blame them all, but there are no scapegoats here, not one, as they all deserve whatever amount of blame you want to assign.
The Detroit Pistons have not offered public support for their coach or GM since the All-Star break, so it's possible they are thinking the same thing, as there has to be some accountability for a 17-win team getting worse.
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