There have been so many lows in this lowly Pistons season, it's hard to know what's rock-bottom. Collapsing against the Clippers at home in December? Allowing 150 points to the Bucks, including 49 in the first quarter at home in January? Failing to win a single game against the top five teams in the East, 0-19 against the Bucks, Celtics, 76ers, Cavaliers and Knicks?
How about Sunday night in Orlando, where the Pistons were blown out by the Magic for their 20th loss in the last 21 games? That's the worst single-season stretch in franchise history, which has brought the worst season in franchise history into play with four games remaining.
"We have to look in the mirror at ourselves and see how we want to approach the game and approach our careers," Dwane Casey said after Sunday's 128-102 loss. "We're too young not to be finishing these last four games out the right way."
“Tonight was a bad presentation of the Pistons, losing by 30," said Killian Hayes. "The Magic are not 30 points better than us."
They sure looked like it Sunday night. And now, if the Pistons fail to win one of their final four games of the season this week, they will match the 1979-80 Pistons, coached by Dick Vitale and Richie Adubato, for the worst record in franchise history: 16-66. Two months ago, even one month ago, this would have felt impossible. When the Pistons beat the Spurs Feb. 10, they needed just two wins in their final 25 games to avoid making the worst kind of history.
And again, they have one win since. The 1979-80 Pistons won just two of their last 31 games.
Casey, 65, is a respected NBA coach who not long ago built the Raptors into a juggernaut in the East. But he's been put in charge of rebuilding teams in Detroit, and he seems to have lost his grip on this group of players in his fifth season as head coach. A change feels inevitable this offseason, with GM Troy Weaver needing a new voice to lead the team forward. Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings made a similar move last offseason, replacing Jeff Blashill with Derek Lalonde.
Casey admitted Sunday that the Pistons "focus and lock-in" just wasn't there.
"And we can't lose that focus, because right now, this is experience time for everybody," he said. "It wasn't just one guy. It was everybody that went in the game. It started in the second quarter and it continued. This was the first time in a long time I didn't feel like we had the lock-in and the focus that you need to have. For whatever reason, the execution, the sharpness was not there."
If it doesn't show up in one of their final four games -- against the Heat on Tuesday, the Nets on Wednesday, at the Pacers on Friday and at the Bulls on Sunday -- these Pistons will go down in the record books, for all the wrong reasons.
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