Pistons tie their championship teams from years past with franchise-record 13th straight win

INDIANAPOLIS — Just two years ago, the Detroit Pistons set an NBA record for the consecutive losses in a single NBA season with 28.

Now, they seemingly can’t lose.

The Pistons tied a team record Monday night with their 13th straight victory, beating the Indiana Pacers 122-117. They matched winning streaks by their 1990 and 2004 NBA championship teams and improved to 15-2.

“It’s amazing,” Pistons star Cade Cunningham said. “We play for the Detroit Pistons, man. A historic franchise. So to be able to make history for a historic franchise like this — it’s special.”

It’s a stunning turnaround for a franchise that started the 2023-24 season with a 3-36 record and finished with 14 wins.

The Pistons have a chance to surpass all the great Detroit teams, including the “Bad Boys” from back in the day. And it’s only fitting that these Pistons, like those old Isiah Thomas-led teams, will have Boston standing in the way of reaching a significant goal. Detroit visits the Celtics on Wednesday night in an NBA Cup game.

Detroit had to get through another old rival, the scrappy, injury-plagued Pacers on Monday, to match the record. Indiana showed that toughness of a team that played in the NBA Finals just a few months ago, but still fell to 2-15.

Cunningham, the former No. 1 overall pick, has spearheaded Detroit’s run to the top of the Eastern Conference standings. He had 24 points, 11 rebounds and six assists Monday night. Jalen Duren, one of the league’s top rebounders this season, had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Caris Levert added 19 points.

The Pistons have added Jaden Ivey back to their already dangerous team. The fifth pick in the 2022 draft had been out since breaking his fibula in January. He scored 12 points against the Pacers, playing just 12 minutes because of a minutes restriction.

Still, Cunningham didn’t like the Pistons nearly squandering an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter.

“We shouldn’t have allowed them to get back into the game like that,” he said. “So watch the film, be sick about the film, but work from it, learn from it and get better.”