On Tuesday evening, the Detroit Pistons improved to 13-2 on the young 2025-26 NBA season with a 120-112 road win over the Atlanta Hawks. The win marked Detroit's 11th straight victory, made even more impressive by the fact that it came on the second night of a back to back.
The Pistons were led in this one by 25 points and ten assists from point guard Cade Cunningham, who returned from a three-game absence to deliver two clutch buckets down the stretch for Detroit when things were getting dicey.
Some fans have mockingly called the Pistons the “November champs” and other names to signify that their hot start to the season isn't 100% legit, but so far, there's no reason to believe that it isn't the case.
A deep Pistons team
As of Wednesday, the Detroit Pistons have the number two defensive rating in the NBA, thanks in large part to the lethal defensive frontcourt duo of Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart, who teamed up to essentially wall off the paint against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday.
The Pistons also have some strong perimeter defenders on their roster, including Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland II. In fact, the only player the Pistons have that opposing teams can consistently target on that end of the floor is Duncan Robinson, who more than made up for that with 14 points in the win over Atlanta.
Still, the head of the snake for Detroit is Cunningham, who didn't miss a beat in his return game vs the Hawks, constantly making the right read out of double teams in the first half to get his teammates open shots, and then taking over and making the plays himself once Atlanta started guarding him one on one in the second.
While the Pistons likely won't keep up a 13-2 winning pace for the rest of the season, they're still clearly a deep team that can win games in a variety of different ways, and they still aren't 100% healthy just yet.
Up next for the Pistons is a road game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday evening.
