DETROIT, MI – The Detroit Pistons lost 110-101 to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a competitive game until crunch time.

There were things to like, but a lot more to improve on for the Pistons who’ve lost seventeen games in a row.

The Cavaliers pulled away late in the fourth quarter after a back and forth game. And head coach Monty Williams believes the Pistons might have succumb to the pressure of trying to get a win. Although they had stretches of good runs, untimely mistakes cost them an opportunity to win. Turnovers, missed free throws, and little offense from the second unit was too much to overcome.

“Overall we had some timely turnovers that didn’t look that great,” Williams said. “Which certainly hurt and contributed to Cavaliers points of turnovers.”

Outside of losing the game, coach Williams is hoping not to lose the team amidst this losing streak.

“I told our guys, as bad as this feels I wouldn’t want to go through this with any other group than them.”

And veteran leader Bojan Bogdanovic said he feels the pain of the team, and has been trying to encourage this young tean.

“Sometimes it’s hard to find something positive to say but we have to stay more together and not hang our heads down,” Bogdanovic said. “Im part of the team so of course I connect with them. I know how hard it is to struggle like we are right now.”

They are finding ways to compete, but have just lost composure when time to put a team away.

“Black Hole”

The Pistons were glad to welcome Bojan Bogdanovic back who made his season debut versus the Cavaliers. And his effect was felt right away after making his first shot of the game, naturally a three. Cade Cunningham who’s been plagued by a lack of spacing found lanes open to drive and facilitate with less attention. Which showed up in the stat sheet for each of them, Bojan scored seven and Cunningham with seven points, four rebounds and six assists after the first quarter.

But outside of Bogdanovic, Cunningham and Jalen Duren, the offense was pretty plagued by a lack of movement. Although there was more space created, there weren’t too many people cutting to the rim on offense. Instead many Pistons players were camped out on the three point line.

Although Bogey and Cade had it going, the lack of movement cost them the lead at half time and again to end the game. The Pistons were down 100-97 with 3:25 left in the game and only scored four points the rest of the way.

Cade Cunningham finished with twenty-three points, eleven assists, eight rebounds and only one turnover. While Bojan Bogdanovic complemented him well with twenty points off the bench on seven of fifteen shooting.

This was a reoccurring theme throughout the game which caught the attention of both coach Williams and Bogdanovic. Williams sees the fight in his team but believes they may be coming undone with trying badly to win a game and snap a historic losing streak.

Pressing

“When you’ve lost this many games, you try your darndest to get a win and start pressing a bit,” Williams stated.

The offense started to bog down and become stagnant especially with Isaiah Stewart and Ausar Thompson a combined one of seven from behind the arc. They would’ve benefited more from attacking the rim and making cuts into the paint when ball handlers would get into the paint.

”We have to stay calm in these moments when we’re in these black holes like tonight,” Bogdanovic said. “Just lost that zen energy, focus and allowed them to go on a run.