BOSTON — The Boston Celtics piled more misery on Detroit Thursday, rallying from a 21-point deficit to hand the Pistons a record-equalling 28th straight NBA defeat 128-122 in overtime.
The Pistons had already become the first team to lose 27 straight games in a single season with a loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday.
They’re now the second team to lose 28 in a row, joining the Philadelphia 76ers who had a 28-game skid spanning the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
Kristaps Porzingis’s dunk – after Jayson Tatum grabbed the rebound of a miss by Detroit’s Isaiah Livers – effectively sealed it, putting Boston up 123-117 with 45.2 seconds left in overtime.
Boston escaped with their perfect home record intact at 15-0, improving their league-leading record to 24-6.
For a while, however, it looked like a desperate Detroit might take advantage of a Celtics squad expecting an easy win – something Boston coach Joe Mazzulla had warned was a danger for his team.
“Each loss they’re actually playing harder because they want to win,” Mazzulla said. “It’s going to happen.”
Detroit, the worst three-point shooting team in the league, drilled 13 treys to Boston’s 11.
The Pistons had 31 second-chance points and with Cade Cunningham scoring 22 of his 31 points in the first half led by as many as 21 on the way to a 66-47 lead at the break.
Cunningham added six rebounds and nine assists and Jaden Ivey scored 22 points with 10 rebounds. But 19 turnovers leading to 27 Celtics points proved too much to overcome.
The Celtics seized the momentum with a dominant third quarter, out-scoring the Pistons 35-16 to head into the fourth tied at 82-82.
Detroit didn’t fold, twice taking a four-point lead. A Tatum layup followed by a Porzingis three-pointer put Boston up by six with 1:56 left in the fourth, but Bojan Bogdanovic’s tip-in for Detroit tied it up at 108-108 and it went to overtime.
Porzingis scored 35 points and Tatum scored 31 with 10 assists for the Celtics, who were without injured Jaylen Brown. Derrick White scored 10 of his 23 in overtime.
Once again, Pistons coach Monty Williams was full of praise for his players.
“They bring a spirit and integrity and toughness to the gym every single day,” he said. “As bad as they hurt right now, I hurt for them.”
Elsewhere, Anthony Edwards scored 44 points to lead Western Conference leaders Minnesota in a 118-110 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, who were without stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
LeBron James had 17 points and 11 assists two days before his 39th birthday, Anthony Davis had 26 points and eight rebounds and Los Angeles sent Charlotte to its ninth straight loss, 133-112.
Nikola Jokic had 26 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists on a perfect shooting night and Denver had its highest-scoring game of the season to rout shorthanded Memphis, 142-105.
Jokic made 11 field goals, including a three-pointer and three free throws without a miss. He has 11 triple-doubles this season and 116 overall.
NBA assists leader Tyrese Haliburton had a career-high 20 without a turnover and scored 21 points to help Indiana hold off Chicago, 120-104.