BOSTON — Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and the Boston Celtics ended Detroit’s winning streak at a franchise record-tying 13, outlasting Cade Cunningham and the Pistons 117-114 on Wednesday night.
The Eastern Conference-leading Pistons squandered a chance to break the record they share with the 1989-90 and 2003-04 championship teams. They are 15-3 two seasons after losing 28 in a row to break the NBA season record.
Brown had 33 points and 10 rebounds, and White scored 11 of his 27 points in the final 4½ minutes to help the Celtics overcome Cunningham’s 42-point effort.
“We understand it’s one game, and we understand also that we didn’t play our best basketball,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “There were things that we could’ve done better, and we still put ourselves in position to have a shot at it at the end of the game. So you know, all these things tally up. We’re still learning, and hopefully, you know, we’re not as good now as we are in April. That’s always our goal, is to continue to get better and better.”
With Detroit trailing by three, Cunningham was fouled near midcourt just as he was about to go up for a 3-pointer. After a review, the officials ruled he was indeed in the act of shooting. Cunningham hit the first two free throws but missed the third. Payton Pritchard grabbed the rebound for Boston, was fouled and hit two free throws with 2.4 seconds left.
Boston stole a pass before Detroit could attempt a potential tying 3.
Pritchard added 16 points to help the Celtics win for the fifth time in six games.
On Monday, Detroit won at Indiana to match the team record for consecutive victories.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
