Detroit have snapped their losing streak. Photo: photosport
Cade Cunningham scored 30 points and dished out 12 assists as the host Detroit Pistons snapped their record-tying, 28-game losing streak by defeating the Toronto Raptors 129-127.
Detroit's skid winds up level for the all-time NBA mark. The Philadelphia 76ers lost 28 straight spanning the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
Earlier this week, the Pistons broke the NBA record for most consecutive losses in one season.
Bojan Bogdanovic contributed 19 points, Jalen Duran had 18 points and 17 rebounds and Kevin Knox II added 17 points as the Pistons avoided two consecutive winless months.
Pascal Siakam led Toronto with 35 points. Dennis Schroder supplied 30 points and nine assists, and Gary Trent Jr. had 24 points. Scottie Barnes added 22 points and nine rebounds.
A loss to the Raptors would have matched the longest losing streak in major US professional sports history.
That record is held by NFL team the Chicago Cardinals - now the Arizona Cardinals - who fell to 29 successive losses between 1942 and 1945.
"We just kept battling," said 2021 NBA draft number one pick Cunningham. "It's been a long, long stretch - all these losses - but I'm just happy to be a part of a group of guys that don't quit and bring it every day and still stay positive and uplift each other."
He added: "It's been weighing on us heavy everywhere we go for two months, which is unreal, for it to have been that long.
"It was a long time coming, something that we've been pushing for for so long and to finally get over that hump, we're not trying to go back. Now it really begins where we see who we're going to be and if we're going to continue to play with that same fire that we've been playing with."
-Reuters