Celtics halt Pistons’ win streak at 13 despite Cunningham’s 42
BOSTON — Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and the Boston Celtics ended Detroit’s winning streak with a franchise-record 13, beating Cade Cunningham and the Pistons 117-114 on Wednesday night.
The Pistons, leaders of the Eastern Conference, missed a chance to break the record they share with the championship teams of 1989-90 and 2003-04. They are 15-3 two seasons after losing 28 in a row to break the NBA single-season record.
Brown had 33 points and 10 rebounds, and White scored 11 of his 27 points in the final 4½ minutes to help the Celtics overcome Cunningham’s 42-point effort.
“We understand it’s just one game, and we also understand we didn’t play our best basketball,” Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff said. “There were things we could have done better, and we still put ourselves in position to take a chance at the end of the game. So you know, all those things add up. We’re still learning, and hopefully, you know, we’re not as good now as we were in April.”
With Detroit trailing by three points, Cunningham was fouled near midcourt just as he was about to make a three-point basket. After examination, authorities ruled that he was indeed shooting. Cunningham made the first two free throws but missed the third. Payton Pritchard grabbed the rebound for Boston, was fouled and made two free throws with 2.4 seconds left.
Boston stole a pass before Detroit could attempt a potential 3-all tie.
“We all wanted it tonight, we all wanted 14 wins,” Cunningham said. “I’m not going to act like it doesn’t mean anything to us. It’s a big deal, we all wanted to be on that side of history, but it didn’t happen.
“We can’t go back. I can’t shoot the free throw anymore. We can’t go up 3 again. The game’s over. It’s about how we’re going to respond. There’s a lot of season left to accomplish a lot of great things and that’s where we’re thinking.”
Pritchard added 16 points to help the Celtics win for the fifth time in six games.
On Monday, Detroit won at Indiana to tie the team record for consecutive wins.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
