It’s been a long time since Detroit has had this much success out west
As I woke up this morning to see the craziness that was the Detroit Pistons ’ furious comeback in Sacramento against the Kings on Thursday, it got me thinking.
The dreaded west coast road trip has essentially been a nail in this franchise’s coffin for over a decade. No matter how encouraging of a start or recent stretch they were on, the annual 4-6 game road trip against the vaunted Western Conference has always been a killer.
For reference, the Pistons have gone 4-21 during these road trips over their previous five seasons. Today, they sit one win away from sweeping the 2024 trip with a win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday.
I went back — wayyyyyyyyyyy back — to see when the last time Detroit had this much success on a west coast road trip. Spoiler alert: it’s been awhile.
Monty Williams (LOL) couldn’t do it.
Dwane Casey couldn’t do it.
Stan Van Gundy couldn’t do it.
Mo Cheeks couldn’t do it.
Lawrence Frank couldn’t do it.
Michael Curry couldn’t do it.
John Kuester couldn’t do it.
You have to go back to the glory days to find the last winning road trip out west — namely, the Flip Saunders-led team in 2006-07. From March 9-16, 2007, the Pistons had a perfect 5-0 record with wins at the Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Seattle SuperSonics, Portland Trailblazers and Phoenix Suns .
For context, the only active players who were in the league back then were LeBron James, P.J. Tucker, Chris Paul and Kyle Lowry. The Sonics don’t even exist anymore and Pistons’ rookie Ron Holland hadn’t even turned 2-years-old when that streak happened.
Yet here we are in the waning days of 2024 with the Pistons on the verge of matching that mark. Even if they don’t win in Denver, this is a great stretch and sign of growth from a team that feels like it’s really beginning to put things together.
They’re far from perfect, but so are the teams they’re battling in the middle of the Eastern Conference. Those 2007 Pistons famously lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the series where LeBron became, well, LeBron.
These Pistons? They’re far from that, but maybe a little west coast success now means a taste of postseason basketball — even if it’s just the Play-In Tournament — come April?