Pistons coach Monty Williams slams players for ‘poor’ effort in 14th straight loss
The Pistons matched the second-worst losing streak in team history on Monday night
The Detroit Pistons lost their 14th straight game Monday night, and Monty Williams was livid.
Williams, after the Pistons fell 126-107 at home to the Washington Wizards — who are the second-worst team in the league — called out his players in a very short postgame media session that lasted all of about 60 seconds.
“That wasn’t fight on the floor,” Williams said after giving two very quick answers. “That wasn’t Pistons basketball by any stretch of the imagination. That's what this is. We have to have people that honor the organization and the jersey by competing at a high level every night. I'm not talking about execution, just competing. That wasn't it, and that's on me."
Monty Williams with some passionate comments about his level of disappointment at the Pistons effort after their loss to the Wizards. #DetroitBasketball pic.twitter.com/wFS9IERB2l
— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) November 28, 2023
The Wizards, who won just their third game of the season Monday night, had little issue getting past the Pistons. Washington shot nearly 51% from the court, and Kyle Kuzma was two assists shy of a triple-double. He put up 32 points and had 12 rebounds, and he was one of seven players to score in double figures. The win snapped a nine-game losing streak for the Wizards.
The Pistons, now just 2-15, haven’t won a game in a full month. Their 14-game losing streak ties the second-longest in franchise history. The record stands at 21 games.
Detroit has one of the youngest rosters in the league with an average age of just 24 years old. Williams feels he’s given the players more than enough to find success — they just aren’t putting it into action yet.
“It’s just a level of growing up on this team, maturity, understanding what game-plan discipline is, all the stuff we talk about all the time,” Williams said. “It’s enough talking.”
His players backed that up, too. Isaiah Livers said after the game that they “just didn’t play hard.” Star Cade Cunningham — who had a team-high 26 points in the loss Monday night — said something similar.
“We all wanna win really bad,” Cunningham said, via the Detroit Free Press’ Omari Sankofa. “Everybody’s doing it in the spirit of that, wanting to win, wanting to do what’s best for the team.
"I think we need more aggressive mess-ups. Where we're struggling right now is slip-ups where we're not physical enough or not aggressive enough. That's what we need to lean towards instead of trying not to press. We need to trust each other with the ball offensively, making the ball pop around. But we need to do everything hard.”
The Pistons will have a chance to break their losing skid Wednesday night when they host LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, who are coming off a 44-point blowout loss of their own.
