"They come and punch you in the mouth": Jayson Tatum lauds Pistons' fight in OT thriller

Jayson Tatum praised the cellar-dwelling Detroit Pistons for putting up a strong fight against his Boston Celtics on Thursday. The Pistons led by as much as 21 points in the game, but the Celtics stormed back and claimed a 128-122 victory in overtime.

Tatum played a crucial role in the Celtics' second-half comeback. Despite shooting a poor 35.5% from the field, including 18.2% from deep, he managed to score 31 points. Kristaps Porzingis (35 points) and Derrick White (23 points) were also key contributors to the team's come-from-behind win.

In the postgame press conference, Tatum said the Celtics never underestimated the Pistons, despite their 2-28 record coming into the game.

“I haven't watched every game they've played, but, you know, the games I have watched, they've been in them for most of it,” Jayson Tatum said.

“They play hard, make shots. They've had a lot of games that were kind of close. I haven't seen many games where they got blown out. So, you might think it would be easy, and they come and punch you in the mouth, and you've got to regroup.”

Cade Cunningham had another solid game, scoring 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting and tallying nine assists, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

The Pistons were led by Jaden Ivey's 22 points, Bojan Bogdanovic's 17 points, Jalen Duren's 15 points, and Alec Burks' 12 points. The Pistons’ 28th straight loss brought them on par with the 2014–2016 Sixers for the longest consecutive losing streak in NBA history.

They are also now one loss away from equaling the longest streak across NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB history, held by the 1942–1945 Chicago Cardinals at 29 consecutive losses.

While they dropped to a 2-29 record, they have been competitive the past few games. They lost their last five games by an average of 7.2 points.

Jayson Tatum says teams are wary of Detroit’s record

Jayson Tatum said teams are mindful of Detroit's record and are cautious not to be the team that the Pistons break their losing streak against.

“We talked about it in shootaround today,” he said. The games don't always go as you're expecting, right? Obviously, everybody knows the elephant in the room—their record.”

“But they're a talented team. They're more talented than many other teams on the bottom end of the standings, especially individually. They've got some really talented guys over there, and they're well-coached.”

Kyle Kuzma, who is part of the 5-25 Washington Wizards, echoed a similar sentiment on X (formerly Twitter), saying teams are reluctant to suffer a loss against the Pistons.

This season, the Pistons have a -11.1 net rating, which is the second-worst in the NBA. During their 28-game losing skid, they were defeated by double digits 13 times.