The Detroit Pistons should have been out of draft lottery purgatory by now. They notched a good leader in Cade Cunningham and teamed him up with an elite big in Jalen Duren while also having a microwave in Jaden Ivey. Monty Williams' addition to the system showed great promise and hope in the offseason. But, everything is going backward for them. They found themselves in another thrilling game against the hot New York Knicks but, expectedly, lost.

This now marks the Pistons' 49th loss of the season. They have gotten better by winning two out of their last 10 games but every single one of those dents in their record is gut-wrenching. What makes it worse? Cade Cunningham has been trying to lift this Pistons team up only to still keep falling short.

In the loss to the Knicks, Cunningham sank five out of his seven shots from three-point range. Those greatly helped in giving him 32 points. Unfortunately, he now only trails Luka Doncic as the player who has the most 30-point outings which have resulted in a loss, per StatMuse.

Scoring was not only the name of the game for this Pistons leader. He also once again acted as an efficient floor general by dropping eight assists. To round the night out, Cunningham also had five rebounds. Jalen Duren also put up a monster double-double with 16 rebounds and 11 points.

Monty Williams better start getting his team together or he could just see this potential star walk away from the Pistons.

Pistons lose in the dying seconds

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The Knicks were slumping as they only won four of their last 10 games. This was the perfect time for the Pistons to get some company at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. Had they won this, they would force the Washington Wizards, who have not won a game in the past 10 matches, to also be dead last. But, it was just not their fate.

A late foul on Josh Hart and the explosion of the Villanova alums propelled the Knicks to a slim two-point win with a 113 to 111 scoreline. The Pistons have what it takes to win but they just have not found a stable way to constantly tap into it.