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The 2023-24 NBA season features several talented teams, but not all are doing well. The rebuilding Detroit Pistons, especially, have been struggling heavily to get in the win column. Despite hiring a proven coach in Monty Williams and boasting a plethora of blue-chip prospects, Detroit went winless in November.
Led by 2021's No.1 pick, Cade Cunningham, the Pistons are off to a 2-16 start. They are on a 16-game losing streak. The Pistons could be on track to make it among the five teams with longest losing streaks in NBA history at this rate.
They have already been there twice. The Pistons had a losing streak of 21 games in 1979-80 and 1980-81, tied for the fifth-longest losing streak. Here's a look at the full list, featuring five teams with the longest losing streaks in NBA history.
#5 Detroit Pistons: 1979-80 & 80/81, 21 Games
Injuries and a disgruntled superstar led to this disaster of a stretch for the Pistons. Mired in mediocrity during the late 70s, Bob Lanier asked for a trade during the 1979-80 season and the Pistons got next to nothing in exchange. Further, injuries to Bob McAdoo and John Long in the 2nd half of the season badly derailed the Pistons.
They started off poorly and were 14-37 and another sub-par season seemed insights. Instead, things got much worse. From that point onwards, Detroit went 2-29 which included a 13 and a 14-game losing streak to end a campaign in which they finished 16-66. They wouldn't be much better the following season either and a 7 game losing streak to start the season combined with the 14 game losing run meant they set the then NBA record for the longest losing streak.
They finally ended the streak with a 112-109 win over the Rockets. Pistons fans wouldn't suffer for long, however, as in the 1981 NBA draft, they drafted Isiah Thomas which marked the beginning of the Bad Boys era and the most successful run in franchise history.
#4 Vancouver Grizzlies: 1995/96, 23 Games
The Grizzlies can be forgiven for popping up on the list, considering it was their 1st season in the NBA. There wasn't a great deal of talent on the team and they were expected to have a pretty awful record.
The Grizzlies started in stunning fashion for an expansion team, winning their first 2 games, but it was a mirage and nothing more. They lost the next game to Dallas and went on a 19 game losing run which many would have thought would be the low point of the season. They even recovered somewhat and were 11-37 and then it got ugly. They lost to the Hawks by 10 points and kept losing from then on. The losing run would end after a 105-103 win over the TWolves. The two long losing runs ensured that the Grizzlies crashed to a 15-67 record. It would get worse the following year with a 14-68 record and it was only after Jerry West became the executive that their fortunes flipped.
#4 Denver Nuggets: 1997-98, 23 Games
One of the worst teams of all time, the 97-98 Nuggets were an embarrassment. The decline started, when Dikembe Mutombo left the team in 1996 and they then traded away Antonio McDyess. The Nuggets did acquire Eric Williams from Boston, and he was averaging almost 20 points a game to start off, but a Knee Injury sidelined him for the rest of season after just 4 games.
Sitting at 2-15, the Nuggets started their magical run by losing 92-83 to the Pistons. What followed was one disaster after another, including a 38 point loss to the Nets of all teams. The streak could have ended at 11, but they lost by a point in OT to the Rockets. After losing 23 straight, the Nuggets sat at 2-38 and the worst record in NBA history was well in sight but credit to them, they recovered. The losing streak ended with a win over the Clippers, and 6 wins from the last 19 games helped them avoid the worst record in league history. They still finished with an abject 11-71 record though.
#4 Charlotte Bobcats: 2011/12, 23 Games
He may well be the GOAT, but Michael Jordan was a goat in literal terms as an executive and owner. The Bobcats/Hornets had been the running joke of the NBA for quite some time and they hit rock bottom in 11/12. Trading away Tyson Chandler and Stephen Jackson ended up being big mistakes and Corey Maggette who they got in return for Jackson would be injured for a chunk of the season.
They started off 2-4, but the losses piled up soon enough. Charlotte stumbled to a 7-36 record, which while pathetic, certainly was not an indicator of what was to come next. The Bobcats lost their next game to the Sixers by 25 points and began their journey towards immortality. They lost all their remaining games and thankfully for the team, it was the lockout-shortened 66 game season, so the misery ended sooner than usual. At 7-59, they set the record for the worst single-season winning % in NBA history.
Thankfully for Bobcats fans, they won their 1st game the following season against the Pacers 90-89 and avoided the dubious distinction of having the worst single-season record and longest losing run.
#3 Cleveland Cavaliers: 1981/82 & 82/83, 24 Games
The perfect example of how bad ownership can completely derail a team. Under the ownership of Ted Stepien, the Cavs plummeted to the bottom of the league. Stepien would often trade away draft picks for marginal veterans and it unsurprisingly backfired.
The Cavs were terrible in his 3-year tenure as owner and a 28 win season in his first year, was a sign of much darker times to come. The following year, the Cavs hit rock bottom and it felt like things couldn't get much worse when they were 15-48, but it sure did. They proceeded to lose the remaining 19 games to finish with a pathetic 15-67 record, but hey, they could draft a top prospect thanks to that maybe? Nope. The 1982 1st round pick had been traded to the Lakers for Chad Ford (who?) and the Lakers promptly used the Number 1 pick in the draft on James Worthy.
The losing carried on to the next season of course and as if it was meant to be, the Cavs broke Detroit's record of 21 losses in a row by losing to the Pistons 128-119 to set the new mark just one season after Detroit's infamous run. Two more losses followed after which they finally won in OT over the Warriors.
#2 Cleveland Cavaliers: 2010/11, 26 Games
The post LeBron trauma hit the Cavs real hard. After years of carrying sub standard Cavalier teams to deep playoff runs, King James fled for South Beach and the Cavs went South soon. Years of not surrounding James with adequate help meant that the Cavs were an absolute train wreck when he left.
The Cavs actually had an okayish start at 7-9, but then the roof fell in. The then longest losing run in NBA history began with an 11 point loss to Utah. They had a chance to end the streak at 2 but lost to the TWolves and never got close after that. The lowlight of this incredible streak was a 55 point loss(!) at the hands of the Lakers. They broke their own record by losing their 25th in a row to Dallas, but thankfully for Cavs fans, the streak would end soon. A thrilling 126-119 OT win over the Clippers helped avoid the longest losing streak in US Professional Sports History.
The season ended in misery with a 19-63 record, but hey at least you were able to draft Kyrie Irving thanks to it. Too bad he's gone now though eh.
#2 Philadelphia 76ers: 2013/14, 26 Games
The beginning of the infamous "Process" in Philadelphia. After draining all the talent in the team in a couple of years, the Sixers tank job was set in motion. This glorious losing run started with a thumping 26 point loss to the Hawks. Things weren't about to get any better.
They then lost back-to-back games by over 40 points to the Warriors and the Clippers. The closest they came to ending the streak during this time, was in Game 23, where they lost a nail-biter to the Knicks by a point. It was followed by heavy defeats to the Bulls, Rockets, and Spurs. Philly looked primed to set the new mark for most losses but ending up beating the breaks off Detroit in a 123-98 win.
The Sixers ended the season with a woeful 19-63 record. They were completely and utterly overmatched in most of the games which wasn't all that surprising considering the team had Michael Carter-Williams and quite frankly nothing else. While Philly fans might have thought the suffering would end soon, what was to come was even worse as shown in the next slide...
#1 Philadelphia 76ers: 2014/15 & 15/16, 28 Games
Ah, the peak (or maybe nadir?) of "Trust the Process". The horror show that was the Sixers from 2013-2016 reached its lowest point when they embarked on the longest losing streak in American Sports history.
The streak started off with a routine 21 point loss at the hands of the Clippers and continued on till the end of the season, as the Sixers finished with a 10 Game losing run and an 18-64 record. If you thought that was bad, worse was yet to come. Philly tied an NBA record by losing 18 straight to start the following season. The fact that they were this bad despite Jahlil Okafor having a solid start to his NBA career, showcased the utter lack of talent in the team. The streak finally ended after a 103-91 win over the equally abject Los Angeles Lakers.
It was definitely a sign of things to come that season, as the Sixers were 1-30 at one point, and ended up 10-72, with a .122 winning %, the 3rd worst in league history.
Guess the Lakers players!
