Could Thursday finally be the day? Superstars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, and Ja Morant will be in action across the NBA, but everyone's attention with be on the Detroit Pistons, who enter their matchup with the Utah Jazz on a historic 24-game losing streak. The Pistons have not won a game since before Halloween, yet a glimmer of hope has presented itself to the league's worst team as a result of Utah's injuries.
Playing for the second time in as many nights, the Jazz will be short-handed when they take on Detroit. In fact, Utah will be without four of their top six scorers this season, as Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, Talen Horton-Tucker, and Keyonte George have all been ruled out for this matchup based on the team's latest injury report. Big man Omer Yurtseven will also miss this game due to an illness.
Pistons aim to snap losing streak
With nine players on their injury report, including those on assignment and playing in the G League right now, the Jazz are not going to have a lot of production available for their game against the Pistons. Collin Sexton and John Collins will be the two focal points offensively, as Walker Kessler, Simone Fontecchio, Kelly Olynyk, Kris Dunn, and Ochai Agbaji round out the group that will look to supply this team with scoring.
Out of all the games the Pistons have played this season, no better opportunity for a win has presented itself than right now. In fact, if the Pistons don't win this game, they may not win a game the rest of the season!
These last 24 games have been nothing short of disappointing and agonizing for the Pistons. What makes matters even worse is that in their last game against the Atlanta Hawks, Cade Cunningham recorded a career-high 43 points against the Atlanta Hawks and Detroit still lost by six points on the road.
The good news for the Pistons, aside from the fact that the Jazz don't have a lot of players for Thursday night's game, is that veteran forward Bojan Bogdanovic has worked his way back into the starting lineup after returning from injury. Cunningham is playing his best basketball of the season and Bogdanovic is healthy once more, which is why this is the best chance the Pistons have to snap their losing streak.
Should Detroit lose again and extend their losing streak to 25 games, they will join the 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers and the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers as the only teams in NBA history to lose at least 25 straight games in the same season. Both Philadelphia and Cleveland lost 26 straight games. The Sixers lost 10 straight games to end the 2014-15 season, followed by the first 18 games to begin the 2015-16 season, so they technically own the longest losing streak in league history at 28 consecutive games.
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