Pistons' Jaden Ivey calls out team after yet another terrible loss

For one single, solitary moment ... it seemed like the Detroit Pistons could turn this 2023-24 season around.

After suffering 28 straight losses and making the bad kind of history in the process, Detroit finally won a game. In its last chance in 2023, the Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors to finally end their losing skid.

And then in 2024, they went right back to losing, and losing bad.

Forget turning over a new leaf in a new year, this was the same old Pistons team that could end up as one of the worst teams of all time in any sport by the time it's all said and done.

This time, though, against the Houston Rockets, Detroit didn't have Cade Cunningham to will the team to be competitive. He played, but he had a terrible off night, scoring just six points on 3-of-16 shooting from the field (0-for-5 from deep).

To be fair, the rest of the team was equally as bad. So bad, in fact, that second-year guard Jaden Ivey seemingly questioned the Pistons' pride after the game.

“You win one, and now it’s like … we haven’t done anything this year. It comes down to pride. All of the pain that we felt this year… this is painful. This is painful to go through. We’re in a season where we’re losing a ton of games, and it’s like … it comes down to pride at the end of the day," Ivey said, via "The Athletic." "The moment you step out there on the floor, ‘What can you do to help the team?’ both defensively and offensively. In the third quarter, they were coming down and scoring. We need to wall up and chest the ball. It comes down to pride. We didn’t have that tonight. Now we have to look ourselves in the mirror, every single one of us, and take more pride."

Most notable was Detroit's defensive effort, or lack thereof, in the second half.

The Pistons went into the second half down just 59-55. By the end of the third quarter, it was 106-80 in favor of Houston. Jalen Green and Alperen Senquin combined for 37 points in that quarter alone. They finished with 22 and 26 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, backup guard Alec Burks was Detroit's leading scorer with 21. Ivey scored 19.

Yes, the Rockets shot 56% from the field, but Cunningham's poor night combined with 18 team turnovers (which led to 33 Houston points) and a lack of effort is what really doomed Detroit.

“We are one of the youngest teams in the league, so no one should outwork us ever, and that's what happened tonight,” Bogdanovic said, per ESPN. “They kind of outrun us, outworked us, and that's got to stop.”