Pistons: 3 competitive goals for the 2021-22 season
By Duncan Smith
Competitive goals for the Detroit Pistons: 1. Beat the Milwaukee Bucks
Let’s be honest, it’s time. The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks have beaten the Detroit Pistons black and blue for years now, and turnabout is fair play.
The Bucks have swept three straight regular-season series from the Pistons, as well as the first round of the 2018-19 NBA playoffs. Only two of these games have even finished with a single-digit margin of victory and over the course of the 14 straight Bucks wins, the average margin of victory has been 16.9 points.
The Pistons haven’t gotten a win off the Bucks since February 28th, 2018. That Bucks squad was a mediocre 44-38, and that was the season Jason Kidd got fired after 45 games.
Last season’s Detroit Pistons were the most unlikely band of giant-killers the NBA has seen in some time. They had wins over the Los Angeles Lakers, the Brooklyn Nets, the Phoenix Suns, the Miami Heat, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Atlanta Hawks, as well as sweeping the Toronto Raptors at a time when that transplanted team wasn’t a free-falling disaster, but they weren’t even able to keep competitive in a game against the Bucks.
Assuming a return to a full 82-game schedule, the Pistons should have four shots at beating the Bucks. It’s time to end this 14-game losing streak.