Coach J.B. Bickerstaff and the Pistons have sat atop the Eastern Conference standings for most of the 2025-26 season.
WASHINGTON – The Detroit Pistons know questions will follow them until they win a playoff series. Until they make a run befitting a top-tier team in the Eastern Conference.
How can a roster that has never won a playoff series go from a first-round exit in one season – a loss to the New York Knicks in 2025 – to a deep playoff run the next season?
They believe they can answer with positive results when the playoffs begin next month.
“Going through the season, just seeing how we’re unique as a team and how we beat teams and how we’ve gotten to where we are now,” Pistons All-Star center Jalen Duren said after scoring a career-high 36 points in a 130-117 victory against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday.
Under second-year coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons recorded their first 50-win season since they went 59-23 in 2007-08. They have been in first place since early November, buoyed by a franchise-best 13 consecutive victories, and are four games ahead of the second-place Boston Celtics (plus, Detroit owns the tiebreaker there).
Complicating the Pistons’ push for the No. 1 seed is All-Star guard Cade Cunningham’s collapsed lung. Cunningham, 24, sustained the injury in the first quarter against the Wizards on Tuesday and is out at least two weeks. The Pistons are hopeful he will be ready for the playoffs.
“Tough for Cade to go through what he’s going through now – how important he is to the team, but how important being with his team is to him,” Bickerstaff said. “It doesn’t make it easy. He’s a huge part of what we do from a leadership standpoint. Obviously, the talent’s there, but just being around him every single day makes people’s days better.”
“But it’s our responsibility to keep pushing forward. And we know he’s there rooting for us, pulling for us. When he’s around, he’ll be cheering for us, help coaching, leading, all those things.”
The Pistons were built via a combination of the draft, trades and free agency and are anchored by Cunningham, Duren, a deep roster blending youth and veterans – and Bickerstaff. His connection to the players has helped turn the Pistons into a contender – and made that NBA record-tying 28-game losing streak seem like more than two seasons ago.
“What are you without confidence?” said Duren, who averages 19 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
Strong season built on defense
Center Jalen Duren’s 36-point game helped key Detroit’s recent win in Washington.
The Pistons have beaten the Celtics, Houston Rockets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder this season, and they have the best record (13-6) against the top 10 teams.
Through Wednesday’s games, they are No. 2 in defense (109.2 points per 100 possessions), No. 8 in offense (116.9 points per 100 possessions) and No. 3 in net rating (at plus-7.8). They lead the league in steals (10.4 per game) and blocks (6.4 per game), are No. 1 in opponent turnovers (17 per game) and No. 2 in points off turnovers (21.5 per game).
“A big picture thing for us is the goal to win the possession game,” Bickerstaff said. “If you’re getting steals, if you’re getting blocks, it lowers the amount of shot attempts that people get. We try to limit that as best we possibly can.”
The Pistons’ renaissance is a treat for the franchise, the city and fans, with the redeeming blue-collar characteristics of the “Bad Boys” and “Goin’ To Work” teams that won titles in 1989, 1990 and 2004.
Still, concerns exist beyond Cunningham’s injury. They rank 22nd in 3-point percentage and 28th in 3-pointers made per game. Do they have enough offense when Cunningham and Duren rest?
“It’s everybody taking up a little bit more,” Bickerstaff said. “You’re not going to be able to replace what he does individually. But collectively, if everybody just plays to the best of their abilities and plays to their strength and ticks it up a little bit more, collectively we can get the job done. And we’ve proven that all year.”
Forward Paul Reed and guards Daniss Jenkins, Marcus Sasser and Caris LeVert have provided some good minutes along with regulars like forwards Tobias Harris, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Ron Holland II, guard-forward Javonte Green and forward/center Isaiah Stewart. But replacing Cunningham’s production – 24.5 ppg, 9.9 apg, 5.6 rpg and 1.5 spg – isn’t easy.
Searching for a playoff series win
The absence of a playoff series victory looms largest for teams looking to go beyond the conference semifinals. The San Antonio Spurs, who haven’t made the playoffs since 2019, are in a similar position.
Used to be, a team needed a series of setbacks season after season to learn what’s required to win the conference and NBA Finals. The “Bad Boy” era Pistons lived this. Unable to beat the Celtics in the 1985 and 1987 playoffs, they finally dispatched Boston in the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals – only to lose to the Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The Pistons beat the Lakers in the ’89 Finals and the Portland Trail Blazers in the ’90 Finals.
And Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls lost to the Pistons in three consecutive playoffs (1988-90) before cracking the code and winning three consecutive titles (and six in eight seasons overall).
But there is emerging evidence, especially in today’s NBA with roster changes and blossoming talent, that a team can learn how to win series after series in the moment.
The Oklahoma City Thunder had one playoff series victory with its current core before winning four series and the championship last season. Their team in the Finals, the Indiana Pacers, had not won a playoff series in three consecutive seasons before reaching the East Finals in 2024 and the NBA Finals in 2025.
Making a significant playoff leap is not unrealistic.
“I trust in our work that we put in,” Harris said. “I trust in how we play, how hard we play as a team and our spirit, and I trust the depth of our team. And I trust that we got the right staff here and right personnel players and right personalities and leadership to be able to help us keep our minds right all throughout the playoffs. It’s the way we play it all season.”
Robinson, who played in the Finals for the Miami Heat in 2020 and 2023, has the most playoff experience with 70 games (three more than Harris).
“You have to learn, but that can happen in the regular season and that can happen in a playoff loss in the first round,” Robinson said. “Obviously, I just got here this year, but a lot of these guys got a lot of experience from that series last year, playing in meaningful games, playing in do-or-die situations and experiencing the pain that comes with that.”
Bickerstaff’s influence apparent in 50-win season
The Pistons beat the Knicks twice in last season’s playoff series – both times at Madison Square Garden. Bickerstaff brings old-school and new-school sensibilities to the job and instilled a defense-first mindset. His approach resonates with players.
“He established a culture and established an expectation for how he wanted us to play and what he wanted the team to look like,” the 22-year-old Duren said. “We just tried to follow that to the best of our ability. When he came in as a proven coach, he fit the characteristics of the guys in the locker room first and foremost. From there, it just took off.”
The son of longtime NBA coach and executive Bernie Bickerstaff, J.B. grew up watching the Pistons’ “Bad Boys” and Jordan’s Bulls. He doesn’t discount the learning process.
“I do still believe that you have to have experience,” Bickerstaff said. “But that experience that we had last year versus the Knicks is enough. That experience gave our guys an opportunity to understand exactly what playoff basketball looks like and how to win in the playoffs.
“Our guys were able to go on the road and win two playoff games in the Garden, with all the allure that comes along with that and the pressures of the moment. That says our guys have what it takes to do it and then do it again. That’s the thing that gives me such belief that we’re capable of doing that.”
Jeff Zillgitt has covered the NBA since 2008. You can email him at jzillgitt@nba.com, find his archive here and follow him on X.
