It’s time for the Detroit Pistons to embrace history.

Tortured history.

History that welcomes owners of the longest losing streaks in sports.

Think Prairie View A&M football. Think Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Think about what might come next.

The Pistons’ 26-game losing streak has tied the NBA single-season record of the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers. If they lose the next three, the Pistons would break the NBA’s all-time longest skid of 28 losses, set by the 76ers over the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.

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The Pistons will play the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday in Detroit with a chance to break the single-season record. On Thursday, they’ll visit the Boston Celtics and can catch the 76ers and join the exclusive club for teams with epic losing streaks.

The record-breaking 29th loss in a row could come Saturday at home against the Toronto Raptors. But for now, the rich history of losers deserves to be celebrated.

How 76ers mastered the art of losing

The 76ers had lost 21 games in a row when on Nov. 18, 2015, they found themselves huddled during a timeout in a game against the Indiana Pacers. Moments after breaking the huddle, the 76ers were assessed a technical foul.

The extra player added an extra layer of ineptitude for a team saddled with The Process (a.k.a. tanking).

The streak began March 27, 2015, with a 119-98 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers and the 76ers strung together nine more losses to finish the 2014-15 season. They opened the following season with 18 consecutive defeats before the streak came to a merciful end on Dec. 1, 2015 with a 103-91 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

The only thing the 76ers mastered was the art of losing.

Prairie View A&M football stunk

It started innocently enough on Nov. 4, 1989, when the Prairie View A&M football team lost to Langston respectably enough, 19-18. Not much respectable transpired during the next 79 games. Prairie View A&M lost them all and may forever owns the longest losing streak in NCAA college football history.

The 80-game losing streak is almost twice as long as the runner-up, 44 games lost by Columbia between 1983 and 1988.

During the streak, Prairie View A&M, then a Division I-AA program, went through four coaches. The program also was shut out 19 times, outscored 3,408-626 (for an average margin of defeat of almost 35 points per game) and suffered more indignities off the field.

The school shut down all sports in 1990 amid a financial scandal in the athletics department and the football program faced allegations of using ineligible players.

Mercy arrived Sept. 26, 1998. That day Prairie View A&M beat Langston 14-12.

In an understatement almost as epic as the losing streak itself, Greg Johnson, then Prairie View’s A&M’s coach, said of the victory, ‘It was well overdue.’

Buccaneers’ streak included humor

Between 1942 and 1945, the NFL’s Chicago Cardinals lost 29 consecutive games. But the longest losing streak since the AFL and NFL merged in 1966 belongs to Buccaneers. Which is our good fortune.

It offers a chance to recount quotes from John McKay, head coach when the Bucs lost 26 in a row over the course of the 1976 and 1977 seasons.

‘Well, we didn’t block today,’ McKay once said, ‘but we made up for it by not tackling.’

‘Gentlemen, we can’t stop a pass or a run,’ he said another time. ‘Otherwise, we’re in great shape.’

The on-field laughter and anguish began Sept. 12, 1976, when Tampa Bay played its first game in franchise history, a 20-0 loss to the Miami Dolphins. The opening ended with a 31-14 loss to the New England Patriots. How wretched did things get?

A 42-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers extended the slide to 13 games and, according to ESPN, after the game someone asked McKay if he was embarrassed by the loss.

‘I was embarrassed before we came here,’ the Bucs coach replied.

The embarrassment and the losing streak ended Dec. 11, 1977, when the Bucs beat the New Orleans Saints 33-14.

Philadelphia Phillies experienced excruciation

On July 29, 1961, Philadelphia Phillies manager Gene Mauch ordered Willie Mays to be intentionally walked when the San Francisco Giants had the base loaded in the first inning. Orlando Cepeda then stepped to the plate and hit a grand slam. The Giants won 4-3.

Thus began the longest losing streak in Major League Baseball history since the American League joined the National League and formed the majors in 1901. During that 23-game streak, the Phillies were outscored 133-54, shut out four times and subjected to excruciation.

Eight times they lost by one run.

The streak ended Aug. 20, 1961 with a 7-4 victory over the Milwaukee Braves. The winning pitcher was John Buzhardt.

‘I had a feeling we were going to win,’ Buzhardt told the Philadelphia Daily News after the game. ‘I said, ‘Get me two runs and I’ll win.’ It’s a good thing they got me seven.’

Two teams share NHL’s unwanted record

Ryan Malone, a rookie left winger with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2003-04, said that year, ‘You have to lose before you win, and we’re doing that.’

Lose, lose and lose Malone and the Penguins did – 18 times in a row – for longest losing streak in NHL history. The Buffalo Sabres matched the streak in 2021.

(The pre-overtime record is 17 losses in a row, set by the Washington Capitals in 1975 and the San Jose Sharks in 1993.)

En route to ignominy, the Penguins were outscored 83-40 during a skid that began Jan 13, 2004, with a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning and ended Feb. 25, 2004, with a 4-3 overtime victory against the Phoenix Coyotes.

For their part, the Sabres gave up five goals a game over a stretch of five games. Their streak began Feb. 25, 2021, with a 4-3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils and ended April 1, 2021, with a 6-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

All those losses, piling up collectively between the 2003-04 Penguins and the 2020-21 Sabres.

‘You learn from these times,’ Malone, the former Penguins left winger, said during Pittsburgh’s skid.

What we learned is how bad those teams were.

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss football’s transfer portal class just transformed from noteworthy to fearsome.

Walter Nolen, a Texas A&M transfer and the top-ranked player in the portal according to 247Sports, committed Sunday to play for the Rebels, according to his post on social media.

The 6-foot-4, 290-pound Nolen was a versatile asset for the Aggies last season along the defensive line, playing roles on the interior and the edge. He concluded the regular season with 37 total tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss and four sacks.

He began his high school career in Mississippi before moving on to play in Tennessee. A five-star recruit in the 2022 class, Nolen was the second-ranked player in his cycle by the 247Sports Composite. He will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Nolen gives defensive coordinator Pete Golding another tool to work with on a defensive front that he revitalized in 2023. The Rebels finished the regular season as college football’s 16th-best pass rush. They’ve since added Princely Umanmielen of Florida and Tyler Baron of Tennessee – who combined for 13 sacks during the regular season – to go along with a truly elite athlete in Nolen.

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

Georgia’s football team has added a player from the transfer portal that should make an impact as a primary ball carrier for the Bulldogs.

Former Florida running back Trevor Etienne provides SEC experience to a backfield that could be losing its top two rushers and wasn’t deep this past season.

Etienne posted to his Instagram account Sunday that he had committed to Georgia.

Georgia seniors Daijun Edwards (818 yards, 11 touchdowns) and Kendall Milton (700 yards, 12 touchdowns) are likely to move on to the NFL.

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Etienne, the younger brother of Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne, rushed for 1,472 yards and 15 touchdowns in two seasons at Florida. He added 21 catches for 172 yards and a touchdown this season and averaged 24.9 yards on kickoff returns.

‘Trevor’s been great for the Gators,’ Florida coach Billy Napier said Wednesday. ‘That’s what I would say. I’ve got nothing but respect for Trevor. His attitude, his practice habits, his contribution to the team, nothing but respect. We wish him well going forward.’

At running back, Georgia returns freshman Roderick Robinson and redshirt freshman Andrew Paul. Sophomore Branson Robinson is coming off a ruptured patella tendon.

Georgia added three running backs in this signing class: four-stars Nate Frazier and Dwight Phillips Jr. and three-star Chauncey Bowens.

If perhaps your holiday shopping didn’t yield any desired gifts, rest assured.

The NFL has come in with a Christmas Day tripleheader that should give fans plenty of cheer. That’s because the final game of the slate, the final game of the entire Week 16 schedule, is one that may very well be a preview of Super Bowl 58.

The Baltimore Ravens will be traveling west to face the San Francisco 49ers in a matchup where both teams enter with winning streaks that span at least a month long. It also features some of the fastest players at their respective positions,: 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel and 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.

But, while NFL fans will have to wait until primetime to see that one, they will get the chance to enjoy an early slate of Raiders-Chiefs and Giants-Eagles.

Here’s what to know about the NFL Christmas Day tripleheader.

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How to watch Monday’s NFL games on TV

The Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs kickoff at 1 p.m. ET on CBS. The New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles begin play at 4:30 p.m on FOX. And the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers kick off at 8:15 p.m. on ABC and ESPN+.

How to live stream Monday’s NFL games

The Raiders-Chiefs game can be streamed on Paramount+. The Giants-Eagles game can be streamed on NFL+.  The Ravens-49ers game can also be streamed on NFL+.

Las Vegas Raiders (6-8) at Kansas City Chiefs (9-5)

The Chiefs snapped a two-game skid in a 10-point victory over the New England Patriots and now will host their AFC West rival, the Raiders. In a crowded AFC wild card picture, Las Vegas is running out of time and needs to jump five slots in the conference, heading into Week 16.

Kansas City is still navigating an offense that hasn’t been quite as crisp as we’ve seen in the tenure of coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, though its defense has been mostly up to the task this season. That said, Kansas City still ranks third in the NFL in passing offense, with 255.6 yards per game. The problem for Mahomes has been turnovers; he has already tied his career high with 13 this season, and has thrown at least one in each of the last three games.

New York Giants (5-9) at Philadelphia Eagles (10-4)

After a nice three-game winning streak got the Giants back on track in the NFC wild card hunt, they dropped a pivotal game against the New Orleans Saints in Week 15 and now have no margin for error. Quarterback Tommy DeVito was banged around against New Orleans and was checked for a concussion but then cleared protocol to return. He’s on track to play.

The problem is that New York is facing an Eagles team that is in a tailspin and will be looking to self-correct. Philadelphia has dropped three games in a row and its problems are coming on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Jalen Hurts has seen his production slow and the secondary is getting beat for big plays. The Eagles are currently tied at 10-4 with the Cowboys, but are behind Dallas in seeding, so every game will have massive implications for Philadelphia moving forward.

Baltimore Ravens (11-3) at San Francisco 49ers (11-3)

The gem of the Christmas showcase, this matchups pits the two current No. 1 seeds in their respective conferences against each other. This may very well end up as a possible preview to Super Bowl 58.

In San Francisco, there are a pair of MVP candidates leading the offense in quarterback Brock Purdy and running back Christian McCaffrey. But this team is far more than simply two players, as receiver Deebo Samuel, tight end George Kittle and a fierce defense round out the squad. The 49ers are on a six-game winning streak, and their average margin of victory over that span is 18.8 points.

Baltimore, however, has its own dynamic playmaker in quarterback Lamar Jackson. The Ravens have their own winning streak – four games – and have battled through a number of injuries to emerge as a force in the AFC. But with a game looming in Week 17 against the conference’s No. 2 seed, the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore cannot afford to come out flat against San Francisco.

The Eastern Michigan Eagles had a chance to get their licks in against South Alabama Saturday during the 68 Ventures Bowl. 

Unfortunately for them, winding up on the wrong side of the 59-10 final score left one Eagles player, graduate defensive back Korey Hernandez, seeking another one that resulted in a sucker punch against the opposition well after the final whistle had blown. 

Multiple videos captured by fans and later posted on social media showed Hernandez running the length of the field while South Alabama sang their alma mater to celebrate the victory. The good vibes were interrupted when Hernandez hit South Alabama defensive back Jamarrien Burt in the back of the head — while Burt still wore his helmet — and a melee ensued from there, involving members of both programs before the fight was broken up. 

Eastern Michigan confirmed to USA TODAY Sports on Sunday that the player who started the brawl was Hernandez.

‘We strongly condemn the actions of some of the student-athletes on the EMU football team in the ugly incident that took place following last night’s 68 Ventures Bowl,’ Eastern Michigan athletic director Scott Wetherbee said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. ‘We are deeply upset and embarrassed by what happened. Their conduct does not reflect the great pride and high standards we place on the game and our program, and the expectations for good sportsmanship and exemplary conduct of student-athletes on and off the field. What happened was completely unacceptable.’

In the statement, Wetherbee apologized to the Eastern Michigan community and the South Alabama team and their fans. Wetherbee also reached out to South Alabama athletic director Joel Erdmann to apologize, according to the statement. He and university president James Smith have also been in contact with Mid-American Conference commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher to jointly investigate the incident further.

‘We are committed to sharing information and video to fully understand all that occurred,’ the statement said.

Hernandez and Burt had apparently tangled during the game on the sideline in a game that became increasingly chippy as the blowout continued. 

In their postgame news conferences, both head coaches said they were still gathering information about the incident.  

Womack added: ‘We’re going to win, but it’s also how we win. And so we want to make sure that we hold people accountable to the standard that we want to operate, in the way we want to represent the city of Mobile and the University of South Alabama.’

“I didn’t see things when they happened,” Eastern Michigan coach Chris Creighton said. “But I definitely saw the intensity of what had just happened. We had a really good, long talk in the locker room afterwards. We want to be first-class all the time, no matter the circumstances, no matter what the scoreboard is, no matter what other factors, people, whatever are involved.’

Hernandez started his college career at Arkansas and redshirted before transferring to Iowa Western Community College before joining the Eagles in 2019. He missed the 2021 season due to injury and was an Academic All-MAC in 2022.

South Alabama was able to resume the post-game trophy presentation following the incident.

Merry Christmas, Cleveland Browns fans. Under the tree is a new franchise receiving record, courtesy of Amari Cooper – and his helper, quarterback Joe Flacco.

Cooper went off for 265 yards on 11 catches (15 targets) and two touchdowns as the Browns defeated the Houston Texans 36-22 to solidify their standing as the fifth seed in the AFC playoff race.

Josh Gordon previously held the organizational mark (261 yards) and made that history more than a decade ago – Gordon’s big game came in a Week 13 defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and he had 10 catches with two touchdowns in the effort.

Somebody on the sideline told Flacco that Cooper needed 10 more yards for the record ahead of the team’s final drive, and the quarterback knew he didn’t even have to force the ball his way for Cooper to make history.

“He’s a special player,” Flacco said of Cooper.

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Cooper’s prior career best was 226 yards, which came while he was a member of the Dallas Cowboys in a Week 5 loss to Green Bay Packers on Oct. 6, 2019.

On Sunday, the 2015 fourth overall pick by the Raiders accumulated 75 yards in one play on a deep pass down the left sideline that saw him burn Texans cornerback D’Angelo Ross, shake off a pass interference penalty and sprint into the end zone for a touchdown.

But his most impressive play came with about four minutes left in the third quarter, when Flacco floated a perfect pass to the sideline while being taken down and Cooper somehow kept both feet in bounds to complete the catch. Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski called it “an incredible play” by both players.

Earlier in the game, Cooper wrote his name into the Browns record books by becoming the first pass-catcher in team history to have back-to-back 1,000 receiving yard seasons. That bit of history came on a 53-yard connection from Flacco on the game’s opening possession that set up the Browns’ first touchdown of the game. By the end of the game, he’d surpassed his 2022 final receiving total of 1,160 yards. It is Cooper’s sixth 1,000-yard season.

Stefanski said Cooper has emerged as a leader for the Browns, who have had to navigate starting quarterback Deshaun Watson’s season-ending shoulder injury.

“I’m happy for Amari because he’s a consummate pro,” Stefanski said. “He’s one of the best I’ve ever been around. What he knows about this game, the way he sees this game, he’s like a savant out there.”

The emergence of Flacco, signed off his couch and now 3-1 as the Cleveland starter, has been a boon for Cooper. Over the pair’s first three games together, Cooper had 14 catches (27 targets) for 220 yards and one touchdown, including a 109-yard effort in a 20-17 victory last week against the Chicago Bears.

The Detroit Lions can finally call themselves NFC North champions.

With Sunday’s 30-24 win over the Minnesota Vikings, the Lions captured their first divisional title since the 1993 season, when the franchise claimed what was then known as the NFC Central. Now, however, the Lions finally sit atop the foursome that has been known as the NFC North since the 2002 leaguewide realignment.

The playoff berth was also the Lions’ first since 2016. The franchise is looking to end a league-worst postseason victory drought that extends 31 seasons.

Detroit’s rushing attack tallied three touchdowns, including two from standout rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs, while the defense nabbed four interceptions from Vikings quarterback Nick Mullens. The final one, secured by safety Ifeatu Melifonwu, extinguished a last-minute drive by Minnesota and secured the victory.

‘This is special,’ Lions coach Dan Campbell said. ‘It’s something you don’t get to do all the time. They’re always special to win a division, I don’t care how many of them you get cause of the work that goes into it. But to do something that hasn’t been done in 30 years for a team is special. And that’s a special group of men back in there that are staying tame at this point.’

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Ahead of Sunday’s game, Lions defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson said he ‘might cry’ if the team wins the division.

“A lot of these guys … haven’t experienced calling themselves a champ, you know?’ said Gardner-Johnson, who signed with the team this offseason after helping the Philadelphia Eagles reach the Super Bowl last season. ‘This is a step in feeling like a winner.”

Others, however, shrugged off the franchise’s history as it relates to the current team.

“I’ve said this before, but we don’t carry the weight of the last 30 years here, we don’t,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. “It’s the 2023 Lions and we’re different than last year’s team and the year before and 30 years before that. So, we’re trying to make our mark this year and we have a chance to do it this week. But yeah, it’s been a long season, we’ve had some success and hopefully can get it done.”

PITTSBURGH –– The 2023 Cincinnati Bengals don’t look like a playoff team. They entered this season with Super Bowl expectations, but for four months the Bengals haven’t consistently played like that caliber of team, even when quarterback Joe Burrow was healthy.

Injuries weren’t an excuse on Saturday as the Bengals lost, 34-11, to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. “Today,” Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins said, “we didn’t play Bengals football.”

The Bengals were missing three of their best players in Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and DJ Reader, but the Steelers’ injury situation was worse. 

The Steelers were starting their third-string quarterback, missing their All-Pro safety and counting on practice squad call-ups at linebacker and at safety. Bengals quarterback Jake Browning should have carved up the Steelers’ defense over the middle, but he looked like an undrafted free agent quarterback who spent four years on practice squads on Saturday. 

In the Bengals’ most devastating regular season loss of Zac Taylor’s head coaching career, all of the Bengals’ biggest season-long flaws reappeared at the worst possible time as the Steelers took a 24-0 lead into halftime and put the game away early.

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“This is a humbling league,” Taylor said. “And this is a humbling day.”

Browning threw careless interceptions, the Bengals couldn’t pick up the blitz and the Bengals pounded their head against the wall whenever they tried to run it. On the other side of the ball, the Bengals got overpowered by the Steelers’ rushing attack, regularly missed tackles and saw their young defensive backs get picked apart in coverage. 

With the loss, the Bengals fell out of the playoff picture and became a postseason long shot with two games left to play. According to the New York Times’ playoff machine, the Bengals’ playoff odds fell from 59% to 13% with the loss. 

The Bengals look like a last place team in the AFC North, and that’s exactly where they stand.

“It’s been very tough,” Higgins said. “A lot of losses that we didn’t expect. But it’s a tough league. Playing against the best of the best, it happens.”

Before Saturday’s game, Steelers third-string quarterback Mason Rudolph had an 0-1-1 record in his two starts dating back to 2020. The Steelers hadn’t scored more than 24 points in a game since September, and they reached 24 points in the first quarter alone. 

Just like C.J. Stroud, Trevor Lawrence and Nick Mullens, the Bengals didn’t have an answer for Rudolph.

“I don’t have an answer for you,” Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “There’s a lot of reflecting we need to do to figure out what’s been going wrong. It starts with eliminating explosive plays. As a good defense, you can’t have explosive plays.”

Steelers receiver George Pickens, who faced criticism for appearing to quit on his team over the last month, opened the game with an 86-yard touchdown. All year, the Bengals have been counting on the athleticism of their young defensive backs to make up for their lack of experience. That bet hasn’t paid off, and the growing pains from DJ Turner, Dax Hill and Jordan Battle have hurt the Bengals all season.

On Pickens’ touchdown, Turner gave him too much space at the line of scrimmage and whiffed at a diving tackle. Turner might have had a chance to bring Pickens down if Hill hadn’t undercut him with his tackle attempt. 

Playing without Reader, the Bengals didn’t stand a chance stopping the run in the first half as the Steelers averaged 5.4 yards per carry. The Bengals’ backup defensive tackles got pushed back on almost every play, and missed tackles continued to gift the Steelers yards and first downs. 

The one veteran in the secondary, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, tore his ACL last October. He played at an All-Pro level in 2022 but hasn’t looked like the same player in 2023. On Saturday, he allowed two deep receptions down the sideline. 

The Bengals defense entered Saturday’s game ranking 31st in yards per drive allowed, 23rd in points per drive allowed and 31st in net yards per passing attempt allowed. Then, the defense had its worst performance of the season.

“There’s a lot that’s frustrating in all aspects,” Hubbard said. “In no area was it a winning performance today. We’ve got to take accountability of that.”

Browning spotted the Steelers somewhere between 10 and 17 points in the first half. During his incredible three-game stretch of standout performances, Browning’s Achilles’ heel was giving the ball away. On Saturday, he threw three horrendous picks.

On the first one, Browning tried to throw the ball out of bounds through the end zone, but the throw veered back into the field of play and right to safety Patrick Peterson.

Two drives later, Browning had wide receiver Tyler Boyd open down the field. Facing pressure from the left side, he underthrew the ball. Steelers safety Eric Rowe, a practice squad elevation, jumped the route and recorded his first interception since 2020. In the fourth quarter, defensive end Alex Highsmith picked off the third pass of his four-year career.

“I’ve got to find a way to turn those three picks into incompletions or throwaways or check-downs,” Browning said. “There are a lot of quarterbacks who have had a bad game. I obviously had a bad game. I’ve got to find a way to respond. That’s where I’m at and where we’re at.”

The Bengals had one last chance to get back in the game late in the second quarter. Down by 21 points, they faced second-and-1 from the Steelers’ 5-yard line. After a screen got blown up in the backfield, a run got blown up at the line of scrimmage and a blitz forced an incompletion, the Bengals turned the ball over on downs. 

While the turnovers cost the Bengals’ offense the most, Cincinnati didn’t have a plan or play calls to take advantage of an undermanned Steelers’ defense. Higgins wasn’t featured much early on, the Steelers seemed to know when screens were coming from the Bengals and Pittsburgh capitalized on blitzes as well as any team has against the Bengals all year, and the Bengals’ offensive line had its worst game in weeks. 

“I don’t think they snuck up on us,” Browning said. “They kicked our (tails). We’ve got to do better.”

The way that this Bengals loss unfolded raises questions about expectations for 2024, even when Burrow returns.

The Bengals never fixed their run game this year. The passing game never sustained a rhythm for more than a few weeks. The offensive line has had a few disappointing games, and right tackle Jonah Williams is set to hit free agency.

On defense, the Bengals’ young defensive backs have never hit their stride. Reader is set to be a free agent, and the Bengals haven’t been able to stop the run without him. Rudolph connected on several deep throws down the sideline. The Bengals have struggled containing those all year, and they’ve also struggled making in-game adjustments to stop an offense from picking on the same weakness over the course of a game.

The season is nearing an end, and the Bengals have a long road ahead of them to get to the level that they expect to reach. 

“The 60 minutes that we put out there was very far from our best football,” Bengals center Ted Karras said. “It was a collective effort by everyone who played today. I don’t think anyone is going to get on the plane feeling like they played really good. But we’ve got two weeks to play. And we’ve still got things to play for.”

Steelers vs. Bengals highlights

With just under 8 minutes remaining in Saturday’s game at Barclays Center in New York, Jaden Ivey knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the Detroit Pistons’ deficit to 12 points. 

The Pistons hadn’t led since early in the first quarter, when the Brooklyn Nets countered their game-opening 6-0 run with a 7-0 run. Following that exchange of leads, Detroit repeated many of the mistakes that had landed them with a franchise-record 25-game losing streak, resulting in the Pistons tying the NBA’s all-time single-season record of 26 consecutive losses, thanks to a 126-115 stumble. 

Take, for example, the possession following Ivey’s 3: Isaiah Stewart committed a flagrant foul on Cam Thomas during a 3-point attempt. The shot went down, and Thomas knocked down the free throw. Just 2 seconds into Brooklyn’s following possession, Ivey fouled Mikal Bridges, who then hit both free throws — and suddenly the deficit was up to 18, yet another example of the Pistons’ tendency to stumble in key moments. Detroit later cut the lead to 10, but got no closer in its history-tying defeat. 

The Pistons, who haven’t won since Oct. 28, are now linked with the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers in NBA ignominy. Attention now turns to Tuesday, when the Pistons will look to avoid owning the record outright when they host the Nets at home. (There’s more potential history this week, too: The league record for consecutive losses over any span is 28, set by the 76ers at the end of the 2014-15 season and the beginning of the 2015-16 season.)

Burned in Brooklyn 

On Saturday, Detroit was hurt by turnovers and a lack of offensive rebounds. The Pistons turned the ball over eight times in the first half — six in the first quarter — for 13 Nets points, and also gave up 11 second-chance points in the first half. They finished the game with 13 turnovers — a reasonable number, especially considering their ongoing issues with ball control — but allowed Brooklyn to score 22 points off them. 

The Pistons’ porous defense also allowed the Nets to shoot 52.3%. They didn’t help themselves at the line, either, missing seven of their 29 free-throw attempts. 

Jaden Ivey led Detroit with 23 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Cade Cunningham played just 10:38 in the first half after picking up his third foul less than 4 minutes into the second quarter, but tallied 17 points in nearly 23 second-half minutes to finish with 22 points and six assists. Stewart had a strong night on offense, knocking down four of five 3-point attempts for 20 points. 

Bojan Bogdanovic (19 points, eight rebounds, four assists) and Kevin Knox (14 points, 3-for-3 from 3) also scored in double figures. The Nets were led by Bridges’ 29 points. 

Detroit trailed by nine at halftime, but cut the margin to two midway through the third period. Stewart knocked down his fourth 3, and Ivey followed that with a layup to bring the score to 77-75. But the Nets closed the third with a 21-7 run, extending their lead to 16 entering the fourth quarter.

Thomas pushed the lead to 18 with a layup to open the fourth, and got the ball right back after Cunningham lost the ball following an inbounds pass. Just like that, Brooklyn had scored 15 unanswered points and pushed Detroit’s deficit to 21. The Pistons cut it to 10 with just over 4 minutes remaining after a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws by Ivey. But Cameron Johnson iced the game a minute later with a 3-pointer that gave Brooklyn a 15-point lead again.

NHL players have long memories.

Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar was on the wrong end of a brief first-period fight in Saturday’s game against the Florida Panthers, the first contest between the teams since the Stanley Cup Final in June.

Kolesar had knocked Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk out of Game 3 of the series with a booming, legal check.

Though Tkachuk would return, force overtime during a 3-2 win and play limited action in Game 4, he missed the Golden Knights’ Game 5 clinching win because the Kolesar hit had left him with a fractured sternum.

Also during that series, microphones caught Kolesar on the bench calling the Panthers pretenders.

On Saturday, Kolesar and rugged Panthers player Ryan Lomberg squared off right after a faceoff during the first period. The fight didn’t last long. Lomberg knocked down Kolesar with one punch.

Kolesar got up and went straight to the dressing room but was able to return for the start of the second period and picked up an assist on Pavel Dorofeyev’s goal.

‘Credit to him for kind of letting me get redemption for last year,’ Lomberg told reporters after the game. ‘He gave me the chance to even the score. He’s a pretty tough customer to come back.’

The Panthers won 4-2 with Tkachuk picking up two assists and getting involved in a scuffle with Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo as time expired. Those two and three other players received 10-minute misconducts.

‘I think we were all really happy with our game tonight,’ Lomberg said. ‘We were hard. We were fast. We were physical when we needed to be, so it’s a good one to leave off of on the break.’

The teams next meet on Jan. 4 in Las Vegas.