Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Juan Soto is obviously a great addition to the Yankees, but I’m a little concerned about Aaron Judge playing mostly in center.
In today’s SI:AM:
🗽 Why Soto is perfect for pinstripes
🌴 What the trade means for the Padres
😔 Men’s college basketball’s disappointments
They blew their best chance
The Pistons are the most depressing team in the NBA.
Detroit’s 116–102 loss to the Grizzlies last night was its 18th in a row. The team hasn’t won since Oct. 28 and has the worst record in the NBA at 2–19. And things seem poised to get a lot worse.
Through three quarters last night it looked like the Pistons might actually come away with the victory and snap their long skid. They went into the fourth quarter holding an 84–82 lead—and then they totally collapsed. Memphis outscored Detroit 34–18 in the final period as the Pistons went 6-of-21 from the floor and turned the ball over four times. The story of the second half was the torrid offensive performance by the Grizzlies’ Desmond Bane, who scored 32 of his career-high 49 after halftime.
Pistons coach Monty Williams said after the game that he was disappointed with his team’s effort at points.
“There’s the personal pride to guard the ball and not let a guy get to the basket,” Williams said. “I had to call a timeout, because we got the lead and Bane got to the basket three straight times.
“That’s not making baskets or scheme, that’s just the ability to get back in transition and guard.”
Last night’s matchup was as close to a must-win game as a two-win team can have, because now that the Pistons lost that one, it’s tough to see when their next win will come. The Grizz (6–15) were the worst opponent on the Pistons’ schedule for a long time. Detroit’s next five games are all against teams in the top six of the Eastern Conference standings: the Magic, Pacers, two against the Sixers and then the Bucks. In fact, eight of their next 10 are against teams with winning records. How long will the streak continue?
Detroit’s 18-game losing streak is already among the longest in recent NBA history. It’s tied for the third longest of the past 10 seasons (excluding streaks that spanned multiple seasons). Only the 2017–18 Grizzlies (19 games) and ’20–21 Rockets (20 games) had longer losing streaks in that period.
The longest losing streak in NBA history is 26 games—a dubious distinction shared by the ’13–14 Sixers and ’10–11 Cavaliers—and it’s possible that the Pistons can hit that record. Unless they’re able to pick up a win in their upcoming stretch against the East’s elite, the streak would stand at 23 games heading into a road game against the Hawks. After that, they play the Jazz at home (a game that the NBA announced would no longer be broadcast on national TV) and then the Nets in Brooklyn on Dec. 23 in a game that could be the record-tying loss.
The Pistons aren’t alone at the bottom of the standings this season. The Spurs and Wizards (both 3–17) are god-awful this year. In fact, San Antonio is in the midst of a 15-game losing streak. But until the Pistons are able to put one in the win column again, they’ll be the laughingstock of the league. Now they have to hope they’re able to pick up a win before the streak reaches historic proportions.
The best of Sports Illustrated
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
- The Yankees and Padres finally completed the long-rumored trade sending Juan Soto to New York late last night. Stephanie Apstein writes that Soto is a “born showman” who should thrive in the Bronx.
- On the other side, Tom Verducci believes that the trade is a signal that the Padres’ aggressive push to win is now over.
- Pat Forde and Richard Johnson have an excellent breakdown of NCAA president Charlie Baker’s proposal to shake up the structure of college sports.
- Kevin Sweeney gives his list of the most disappointing teams in men’s college basketball thus far.
- Emma Baccellieri ranked all the potential destinations for Shohei Ohtani.
- Iowa’s Caitlin Clark made history by scoring her 3,000th career point.
- A former Jaguars employee is accused of stealing $22 million from the franchise.
- President Biden voiced support for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy competing under its own flag at the 2028 Olympics. Lacrosse will make its Olympic debut that year and the Haudenosaunee, a Native American and First Nations tribe that straddles the American/Canadian border, is consistently among the best national teams in the world.
The top five...
… things I saw last night:
5. Two goals in 27 seconds for the Golden Knights.
4. The terrible play that cost Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy his second straight shutout.
3. Luka Dončić’s triple double in the first half.
2. The chicken nugget incident that earned a minor league hockey player a penalty.
1. Trae Young and Mikal Bridges trading clutch shots in the final seconds of the Hawks-Nets game.
SIQ
On this day in which year were fans at three NFL games left confused by messages from PA announcers requesting that various government officials call their offices?
- 1929
- 1941
- 1968
- 1991
Yesterday’s SIQ: Which of the following cities did not apply for an NHL expansion franchise before the league awarded teams to Tampa and Ottawa on Dec. 6, 1990?
- Milwaukee
- Seattle
- San Diego
- Denver
By the time NHL owners met in December 1990, it had trimmed the list of possible contenders to just five: Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Ottawa and Hamilton.
