Losing to the big-game hunting Detroit Pistons is no longer a “bad loss”

The Detroit Pistons aren’t your typical bad team. Unlike other teams in the past that were built to lose, like the 2015-16 Philadelphia 76ers, they rarely get run off the floor and they make teams pay when they don’t get up against them.

Although they have just six wins in 24 games and are tied for the fewest victories with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Washington Wizards, their list of conquests is impressive. They have wins over the 19-6 Los Angeles Lakers, the 17-7 Philadelphia 76ers, the 14-12 Brooklyn Nets, the 14-9 Phoenix Suns and the 12-10 Boston Celtics.

The Detroit Pistons may lose a lot, but getting beat by them isn’t a bad loss

All in all, the Pistons have wins against five of the top 10 (sorted by wins) teams in the NBA, and the only team outside of that range they beat is the Miami Heat, who are struggling but did just go to the NBA Finals four months ago.

Their close losses are similar. They forced the Lakers to double overtime on the back end of a road back-to-back before finally falling to LeBron James and the defending champions on Saturday. They lose a close 114-110 game against the Sixers on January 23rd before blowing them out 119-104 the next game out.

The Pistons have a one-point loss to the Houston Rockets, a six-point loss to the Heat and a two-point loss to the Celtics on January 3rd, two days after beating them 96-93.

You could at one time have considered a defeat by the Pistons to be a bad loss. There are one-offs and sometimes the best teams in the NBA lose to the league’s bottom-feeders. However, it’s become evident that this is a team that hunts giants.

They aren’t easy to beat like some bad teams and they don’t roll over, so when the league’s best teams show up unready to play hard, they’re ready to take advantage. At this point, the good teams that get their business with the Pistons over and done with (like the Milwaukee Bucks) and don’t play with their food deserve credit for it.

The Pistons know that they’re underdogs every time out, and they know that their wins cause nuclear meltdowns in opposing locker rooms and fan bases. When you’re not going to win many games anyway, that’s a great trophy to mount. Regard the meltdown the New York Daily News had immediately after the Pistons easily handled the Nets on Tuesday night:

Being the lousy team that spins its opponents into turmoil is a delight.

Along the same lines, Kyrie Irving was beside himself after Tuesday’s game:

"“We’re the team that gets someone taken out during COVID during the games. We’re the team that has to deal with the refs. We’re the team that is battling against so many odds.”"

There won’t be any playoffs in the future for the Detroit Pistons this season, but wreaking this kind of psychological havoc in their opponents is its own reward. At some point, you’d think that the NBA’s best teams would put two and two together and recognize that the Pistons exclusively hunt big game, but so far they don’t seem to have figured that out yet.