Pistons collapse in the 4th quarter and their postseason-record skid reaches 15 with loss to Knicks

NEW YORK (AP) - The Detroit Pistons were a little more than nine minutes from ending the longest postseason losing streak in NBA history, playing with poise for three quarters Saturday night.

A mistake-filled final quarter meant the wait will go on for the Pistons.

The New York Knicks had a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter, when Detroit had more turnovers than baskets, and won Game 1 123-112.

The Pistons were in their first playoff game since 2019 and held up well for most of it, building a a 98-90 lead early in the final period.

They trailed by 13 by the time they scored again, contributing to their own collapse with mistakes they had avoided for most of the night.

"I just thought the turnovers led to easy baskets for them," forward Tobias Harris said.

The period started with two of them before the Pistons even got a shot, a 5-second violation on the inbounds pass to begin the period, then a 24-second shot clock violation on the next trip.

All told, the Pistons had eight turnovers in the quarter that led to 11 points. Detroit shot 7 for 22 (31.8%) and was outscored 40-21 in the fourth.

Cade Cunningham finished with 21 points and 12 assists, but shot just 8 for 21 from the field and committed six turnovers.

The star guard, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft, is the primary reason the Pistons made the playoffs as the No. 6 seed after going 44-38, a 30-win improvement that was one of the largest in NBA history from one season to the next.

"Yeah, it was definitely learning experience. Something that I've never done before, I've never been a part of," Cunningham said. “But also, I didn't treat like a different game. I tried to approach it like a regular game, read what the defense gives me, and exploit that. At the end of the day, it's basketball. It's something I've been doing since I was a kid. So, I don't switch for the environment or anything.

"But, you know, this game got away from us."

Until it did, the Pistons were on the verge of a smashing return to the postseason, before the kind of collapse their young core had avoided so well. Detroit blew an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter on opening night against Indiana, then hadn’t lost when leading by eight or more in the final period since.

So it’s now 15 losses and counting since their last victory, in Game 4 of the 2008 Eastern Conference finals.

"It's a series," Harris said, "and you can’t get too high, you can't get too low."