Nine losses in a row sounds bad, but when it gets into the double-digit realm it sounds exponentially worse to me. And that's the territory the Pistons have broached after a five point loss in Dallas tonight. 10 straight losses. Yikes. It's been 16 years since the Pistons lost 10 in a row.
Similar to the game against Dallas at The Palace in mid-November, the Pistons took a nice little lead into the 2nd half, but in both games, Dallas became unstoppable. Dallas scored 62 points in the final two frames tonight, and Dirk Nowitzki led the charge after halftime, scoring 14 points in the 3rd quarter. He finished with 22 points.
Despite losing an eight point lead and falling behind by as many as eight in the 2nd half, the Pistons still had a chance late. Down by three with a little over 10 seconds left, Tayshaun Prince inbounded to a wide open Rodney Stuckey in the corner, whose triple try went long. Dallas rebounded, hit a couple freebies, and that's all she wrote.
Back to the final opportunity for the Pistons... Stuckey was so WIDE open, it instantly made me wonder if that was by design. As I mentioned in the game thread after seeking out Basketball-Reference, he's only taken seven threes since November 26 and he made zero of those. I don't blame him for taking the shot, because he was really WIDE open, but it's frustrating to think the Pistons may have played right into the Mavs hands on that last possession and failed instead of trying to get one of their better three point shooters a chance.
There were definitely some positive things about tonight's game, but I'm sure most will want to harp on the bad and stew over the 10-straight losses. Have at it. Full analysis may or may not ensue.