Pistons vs. Magic Friday NBA odds: Detroit's 18-game losing streak poised to exceed team's updated league-low season win total

The Detroit Pistons haven't won more than 23 games in a season since the 2018-19 campaign, but they were supposed to take a pretty decent step forward from last year's club that finished 17-65. The team landed a respected head coach in the offseason in Monty Williams, and former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham was healthy after essentially missing all of last year. Yet Detroit enters Friday's game in Orlando on a franchise-record 18-game losing streak that's likely to reach 19 with the Magic at -12 on the SportsLine consensus.

There are a lot of reasons why this team is so bad, but here's one to definitely circle: In the 2020 NBA Draft, the Pistons picked seventh and took Frenchman Killian Hayes, who supposed to fill the franchise's need at point guard. They reportedly took the unproven Hayes over Iowa State point guard Tyrese Haliburton because of concerns over Haliburton's jumper.

The decision looks unwise in retrospect. Hayes isn't an outright bust but averages 9.7 points on 42.5% shooting with 4.3 assists in 26.9 minutes per night. Haliburton, chosen No. 12 overall by Indiana (clearly other teams had concerns about his jumper), is a breakout superstar and MVP candidate who might be the best point guard in the NBA – still a glaring hole on the Pistons – averaging 26.9 points on 52.5% shooting and a league-best 12.1 assists.

Detroit's opening over/under season win total was 27.5. It's now a league-low 18.5, meaning the Pistons' losing streak on Friday likely surpasses that number on Friday. (San Antonio has just one more victory than the Pistons and is currently on a 15-game losing streak, but has an O/U total of 23.5.) The 18-game skid is the NBA's longest since the Rockets dropped 20 straight in the 2020-21 season. Detroit's last victory was a 118-102 effort over Chicago on Oct. 28 to improve to 2-1. While the skid is a single-season franchise record, the overall team mark is a 21-game slide at the end of the 1979-80 season and start of 1980-81.

On Tuesday, I recommended here at SportsLine the Pistons +2 at home vs. injury-ravaged Memphis, which entered at 5-14. It should have been Detroit's Super Bowl of sorts. The Pistons led 69-61 midway through the third quarter and 84-82 entering the fourth but then imploded, losing 116-102 – the ninth double-digit loss in the streak. The team is 6-12 ATS during it.

"The only message is, and the only truth is, 'the mirror,'" veteran guard Bojan Bogdanovic said after the Memphis loss. "We've got to look at ourselves in the mirror, each of us as players. The truth is there on why we're playing bad or why we cannot win the game. So, don't blame it on anyone else. That's the only message that I can send the guys, and we all know that. But we've got to be more honest with ourselves, take a bit more pride because at this point, it's just bad."

The 76ers hold the NBA single-season record losing streak of 26 in a row in 2013-14 and the overall mark at 28 at the end of 2015-16 and start of 2016-17. That's definitely in jeopardy, as barring injury it's tough to see Detroit being favored for a long while and a winless remainder of 2023 is in play.

Here's the remaining December schedule and each opponent's current record:

• Friday: at Orlando (14-7)
• Dec. 11: Indiana (12-8)
• Dec. 13: Philadelphia (13-7)
• Dec. 15: at Philadelphia (13-7)
• Dec. 16: at Milwaukee (15-7)
• Dec. 18: at Atlanta (9-11)
• Dec. 21: Utah (7-14)
• Dec. 23: at Brooklyn (11-9)
• Dec. 26: Brooklyn (11-9)
• Dec. 28: at Boston (15-5)
• Dec. 30: Toronto (9-12)

Offshore book BetOnline now lists Williams as the +300 second favorite behind Washington's Wes Unseld Jr. (+300) to be the first NBA coach fired, but would owner Tom Gores really eat a $78 million contract this early? Highly, highly doubtful. Has Williams been a good fit? Clearly not, and reportedly his handling of second-year guard Jaden Ivey has been a point of contention within the organization.

The Pistons were lauded for getting Ivey at No. 5 overall in the 2022 draft out of Purdue, and he had a very promising rookie season in averaging 16.3 points and 5.2 assists in about 31 minutes per game. He's now playing only 23 minutes per night this season. Ivey and Cunningham were supposed to be the two pillars of the franchise going forward.

Another promising young Detroit player, 20-year-old center Jalen Duren, injured his ankle in the Memphis loss and will miss multiple weeks. Duren is averaging 12.6 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. 

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