The Detroit Pistons are approaching some significant milestones.
And yet, they aren’t in a celebratory mood.
Their 126-110 rout of the Memphis Grizzlies at home Friday, March 13, came on 313 Day – a celebration of all things Detroit. Their third win in a row brought them to 48-18 – easily the franchise’s best win total in two decades. With 16 regular-season games remaining, a 50-win season is a certainty. A 60-win season – a threshold the franchise has only reached twice, in 1988-89 (a championship season) and 2005-06 (an Eastern Conference finals season) – is a possibility.
At the very least, this already is the most successful Pistons team in nearly two decades, with the potential to get even better. They have their most victories since they won 59 and made their last Eastern Conference Finals appearance, in the 2007-08 season.
A team that set a franchise record for losses – at 14-68 – just two years ago, is now comfortably the No. 1 team in the East, with a healthy five-game lead over the Boston Celtics (not to mention a 7½-game lead in the Central Division). Only two other teams have yet to lose 20 games: the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder (52-15) and the San Antonio Spurs (48-18).
But with winning comes expectations, external and internal. With a month remaining in the regular season, the Pistons are preoccupied with sustaining success. Players are openly talking about winning championships.
Acknowledgment and appreciation of their rapid growth will come later, perhaps, depending on how they do in the playoffs.
“I think we celebrate the small wins,” Jalen Duren said after leading the Pistons with 30 points and 13 rebounds against the Grizzlies. “The main focus is to keep succeeding, keep getting better as we move into the postseason. Staying healthy.
“I know the city and the fanbase still thinks about when we were struggling and losing games and where we are now, but now we’re like, we’re here. This is what it is. We’re not going to keep celebrating the fact that we’re successful. We’re just going to keep trying to be successful.”
The Pistons were expected to be good, coming off of a breakout 44-win campaign and a competitive first-round playoff exit.
They weren’t supposed to be this good.
Cade Cunningham led them in scoring last season. The No. 2 scorer, Malik Beasley, wasn’t re-signed after news of a gambling probe derailed a new contract. The offseason moves of president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon – adding vets Duncan Robinson, Caris LeVert, Javonte Green and re-signing Paul Reed – were viewed as prudent but unlikely to add many wins, especially in comparison to splashier offseasons by the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets.
ESPN’s panel of NBA pundits projected 44 wins and a 77.8% chance to make the playoffs. The Pistons have blown past the win projection, and need a few more wins to lock up a top-six playoff spot. (They’ve already clinched a spot in the play-in games, entering Saturday 20½ games up on the East’s 11-seed, the Milwaukee Bucks.) The Pistons came in 11th in NBA.com’s first Power Rankings, five months ago on Oct. 20. Back then, it was difficult to project their defensive improvements under coach J.B. Bickerstaff, as they’ve emerged as one of the league’s top two units. Or that Jalen Duren would join Cade Cunningham as an NBA All-Star, helping to power a top-12 offense.
After a 2-2 start to the season, the Pistons rattled off 13 consecutive wins – tying a franchise record. They have the league’s second-best defensive rating (109.4) and are closer to the first-place Thunder (107.3) than the third-place Boston Celtics (120.6). No team blocks more shots per game, or comes up with more steals.
It’s a Pistons team that plays like the platonic ideal of a Pistons team. Their strategy two weeks ago to disrupt Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama was, essentially, to be as physical with the 7-foot-5 big as much as the officials would allow.
They sent Wembanyama tumbling to the ground on several occasions. On one play in the first quarter, Ausar Thompson rammed his full body into Wembanyama’s back on a screen for Cunningham. It was an extreme version of the routine for the Pistons, who wear teams down over the course of 48 minutes a night.
Thompson has a claim as the league’s best perimeter defender. Isaiah Stewart is among its top rim protectors. Green, Reed and Ron Holland bring chaos off of the bench. That identity has powered their success this season. Even in today’s 3-point era, defense wins.
“They’ve carried themselves like it’s a team that knows how to win,” said Kevin Huerter, who arrived from the Chicago Bulls at the Feb. 5 trade deadline. “I don’t think any of this is new, especially with their playoff experience coming from last year. That losing season, the 14-whatever season they had, that feels like a long time ago now. There’s guys in the locker room that remember it, but this team carries themselves every day by going in and trying to win every game they attack every day.”
There was a novelty to winning a year ago, fresh off, yes, that 14-win season that included 28 losses in a row. This season, though, the Pistons’ success will be measured by what they do in the postseason.
Winning 60 games would be good. Winning a playoff series for the first time since 2008 would be better – that’s the most significant milestone the team can achieve this season short of a title.
“Last year we were happy to win,” Stewart said Friday. “We were happy to win, happy to get to the playoffs. We have bigger aspirations this year. It’s not just getting to the playoffs. It’s our run, trying to bring this Larry O’Brien Trophy back to Detroit. It’s one day at a time and we’re ready to embrace this journey.”
[ MUST WATCH: Make “The Pistons Pulse” your go-to Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) or watch live on YouTube. ]
Next up: Raptors
Matchup: Pistons (48-18) at Toronto (37-29).
Tipoff: 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 15; Scotiabank Arena, Toronto.
TV/radio: FanDuel Sports Network Detroit; WXYT-FM (97.1).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons are 2 wins from a milestone two decades in the making
Reporting by Omari Sankofa II, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
