Nov 18, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) drives on Atlanta Hawks forward Onyeka Okongwu (17) in the second quarter at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
Nov 18, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) celebrates after a victory over the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images

On Saturday, the Detroit Pistons trounced their division rival Milwaukee Bucks, 129-116, behind 29 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists from star guard Cade Cunningham. It was Detroit’s 12th win in a row, one that put their record at 14-2, good for first in the Eastern Conference.

That may sound impressive enough in its own right, but when you consider the Pistons won 14 games in all of 2023-24 - just two seasons ago - you begin to realize just how ridiculous Detroit’s 2025-26 has been, as well as how historic their turnaround has been over the past couple of years.

We decided to conduct some research on the topic and found that the Pistons, at 691 days, have the second-shortest turnaround time between a team’s most recent 12-game losing streak and their next 12-game win streak in NBA history. From October to December of 2023, Detroit dropped 12 contests in a row, with three 32-point losses taking place in that stretch.

The Pistons were a laughingstock who wound up finishing the campaign with the worst record in the league at 14-68, so the level to which they are dominating thus far in 2025-26, with many of the same players on the team, is almost hard to believe.

Still, Detroit only has the second-quickest turnaround time between 12-game losing and winning streaks. The record for the fastest turnaround time in that regard still belongs to the Boston Celtics, who accomplished the feat between 2006-07 and 2007-08. The Celtics had 681 days between 12-game losing and winning streaks, just 10 fewer than Detroit’s pace, but they needed to make an all-time trade for an eventual Hall-of-Famer to pull that off. The Pistons have made no such move over the past two years.

Nor were the Pistons shamelessly tanking at the time of their losing streak, like the next team we’re going to talk about.

The only other team with fewer than 1,000 days separating 12-game losing streaks and winning streaks was the Process-era Philadelphia 76ers, who lost 12 games between March and April 2016, and then won 16 consecutive games between March and April 2018, with 739 days separating the two streaks.

In our minds, though, the Pistons still have the most impressive turnaround out of these three groups because they experienced organic growth (and a head coaching change, going from Monty Williams to JB Bickerstaff).

They didn’t put on the most shameful tanking display ever like the Process Sixers did, or make one of the biggest trades in league history like Boston did when it picked up Kevin Garnett between ‘07 and ‘08; Detroit, instead, changed head coaches and let its young stars, Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson, develop, while making savvy small additions to the roster in picking up productive vets such as Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert.

All in all, the Pistons’ elite play in 2025-26 (they’re fourth thus far this campaign in net rating at +7.1; they had a -9.0 net rating in 2023-24) has been nothing short of awe-inspiring, especially factoring in how abysmal their play was just two seasons ago.

Now, we’re just curious to see how long the good times keep rolling in Motown, and how many wins in a row they can reel off.

This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: The Detroit Pistons’ turnaround has hit historic levels

Reporting by Frank Urbina, HoopsHype / Hoops Hype

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