In their previous two seasons, the Detroit Pistons won 31 games combined. On Wednesday, they won their 33rd game of the season. And how.
The Pistons notched their eighth win in a row with a dominant second-half performance against the also-streaking Boston Celtics, finishing with a 117-97 victory. The win streak is the Pistons' longest since the 2007-08 season.
The Celtics, who were without Jaylen Brown due to a thigh contusion, were on a six-game streak.
Detroit looked well on its way to a blowout win in the first half, holding a 15-point lead at one point in the second quarter. However, a furious Celtics run left the teams tied at halftime, only for Detroit to come out and build up a lead that peaked at 23, which they did not lose.
Malik Beasley came off the bench to lead the Pistons in scoring with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting, plus five rebounds, two assists and zero turnovers. Cade Cunningham also continued his campaign for Most Improved Player with 21 points and 11 assists.
The past three weeks have looked like a very real step forward for the Pistons, who direly needed one. Entering this season, Detroit hadn't been to the playoffs since 2019, had been running through several lottery picks with mediocre results, and were on their third coach in three years after firing Dwane Casey for Monty Williams and Williams for J.B. Bickerstaff.
Finally, something is working. The team now holds a record of 33-26, good for sixth in the Eastern Conference and only a game behind the Indiana Pacers for fourth.
No. 8 Michigan State stuns No. 16 Maryland on half-court heave from Tre Holloman
We are still three days from March, but No. 8 Michigan State's Tre Holloman got the madness started early.
The Spartans guard delivered an all-time stunner against No. 16 Maryland on Wednesday with a buzzer-beating, half-court heave to break a 55-55 tie on the road. With less than three seconds left, Michigan State rebounded a miss from Ja'Kobi Gillespie and got it to Holloman, who launched it from behind the logo.
Nearly a second after the buzzer sounded, the ball hit net and the Spartans had the win. Predictably, their bench went nuts, while Gillespie and Maryland fans pulled out the full surrender cobra.
Incredibly, this is the second time in five games against Maryland that Michigan State has hit a preposterous half-court buzzer beater.
"I saw the rim and then the shot clock going down, so I had to throw it up. We practice those, so I just got up and it went in," Holloman told Big Ten Network's Andy Katz in the aftermath.
Before the buzzer-beater, Holloman had been shooting 2-for-11 from the field and had just committed the turnover that allowed the Terrapins to tie the game. He finished with nine points off the bench, plus three assists and two rebounds.
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