Detroit Pistons ahead Tobias Harris (12) celebrates with heart Jalen Duren (0) after a win over the Toronto Raptors in an NBA basketball sport Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Picture/Duane Burleson)
DETROIT — After practically twenty years and stretches of futility, the Detroit Pistons have gained the NBA Central Division once more.
The Pistons defeated the Toronto Raptors 127-116 on Tuesday to complete an extended climb again up the NBA ladder and clinch their first division title because the 2007-08 season.
“You are taking delight in understanding how onerous it’s to do this stuff on this league,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff mentioned after the sport. “You are taking delight in the truth that you may have a bunch of younger males who’ve grown and achieved sure milestones.
“It’s part of the method, and we count on extra.”
Your Detroit Pistons are the Central Division Champs. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ibrTJyEbKD
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) April 1, 2026
Two years after going 14-68 and shedding a league-record tying 28 straight video games, the Pistons are 55-21 with two All-Stars in Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren. With Cunningham sidelined by a lung damage, Duren had 31 factors on 12-of-13 taking pictures and added 9 rebounds in opposition to the Raptors.
“He’s so proficient,” Bickerstaff mentioned. “He’s a distinct sort of massive that you simply see within the NBA. You’ve space-up bigs and post-up bigs, however when you may have someone who can do each, he’s an issue for folks.”
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Daniss Jenkins, who began the season on a two-way contract, had 21 factors and 5 assists. He’s averaging 18.6 factors and 6.9 assists since changing Cunningham as the place to begin guard.
“We knew we had been attempting to do one thing particular this 12 months,” he mentioned. “It’s nice to perform one thing like this, however we now have our eyes on the playoffs and performing some injury there. We’ll have a good time this tonight and get again to work tomorrow.”
They’ve helped finish one of many worst durations in franchise historical past.
In 2007-08, the Pistons had been nonetheless operating out a lot of the identical gamers that had led them to the 2004 championship and a seven-game Finals loss to San Antonio a 12 months later. They went 59-23 below coach Flip Saunders, then knocked out Philadelphia and Orlando on their method to the final of their six straight Jap Convention Finals appearances.
They didn’t comprehend it, however they had been about to go off a cliff.
The next offseason, staff president Joe Dumars traded Chauncey Billups to Denver for Allen Iverson and changed Saunders with Michael Curry.
The Pistons went 39-43 and spent the following 10 seasons biking by eight coaches and leading to zero postseason victories.
That was adopted by one of many worst five-year stretches in NBA historical past because the Pistons went 94-290 (.245) and hit all-time low in 2023-24, once they misplaced a franchise-record 68 video games.
Final season, Cunningham and Duren led the Pistons to a 30-win enchancment earlier than they fell in six video games to the New York Knicks within the first spherical of the playoffs.
