PHILADELPHIA – With an Eastern Conference gauntlet to open the regular season and injuries to star players, the Detroit Pistons have been greeted with adversity early. And they're off to their best start in eight years.
It's far too early to crown the Pistons, who are 3-0 overall after a 106-93 road win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, Oct. 25. But the manner in which they've won the games has been convincing. They opened Sunday's win with a 20-4 run. Last Friday in Miami, they led the Heat 22-5 midway through the first quarter en route to a 128-111 blowout.
They never trailed in either game, and that's despiteJalen Duren exiting Friday's game with a right hamstring strain in the second quarter, and Ausar Thompson joining him in the third
quarter with a right ankle sprain. Neither player was active on Sunday, yet they led wire-to-wire against a superstar-laden, though banged-up, 76ers team that was without Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe.
Including their season-opening home win over the Boston Celtics that saw them erase a 22-point deficit, they've made an early argument as being a team the Eastern Conference will have to go through – as they were last season, when they surprised the world with 60 wins.
The gauntlet's not over yet, though, with a trip to New York to face the defending champion Knicks (0-3 overall) on Tuesday.
"It’s a tough league, every team has got something, but playing against championship pedigree teams like you're saying, you have to come ready," said Daniss Jenkins, who started in place of Thompson on Sunday and finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists. "We knew it was going to make us a better team, going against them early in the season. We just wanted to be ready for it, but beyond that, we want to be the best team in the world. We’ve got to prepare and take care of all of the details and stuff, and then put the effort out there."
It's the first time the Pistons are 3-0 since they opened the 2018-19 season 4-0. That season is an example of why early success isn't necessarily a predicator of late success, as they immediately lost five in a row and finished 41-41 overall, falling in the first round in a sweep to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Yet the first week of the 2026-27 season has re-affirmed that this iteration of the team, which largely consists of the same personnel from last year, is capable of dominating opposing teams both similarly and differently. They are once again elite defensively, holding the 76ers to 40% overall and Heat to 38.2% overall.
But it's the offense that's taken on a new identity. It's more diverse and perhaps more potent. They are shooting 42% from 3 through three games, the third-best rate in the league. It's likely unsustainably hot – the Denver Nuggets led the NBA last season at 39.6%, and the Milwaukee Bucks were No. 1 a season prior at 38.7% – but still reflects the moves they've made to get better. They were around average last season at 35.6%.
And they're deep again, with several players delivering big performances to help them overcome Duren and Thompson's absences. Duncan Robinson, who's shooting a red-hot 53.6% from 3 (15 for 28) so far, delivered 21 points and timely 3-pointers to stave off the Sixers' runs. John Collins is finding his groove on his new team, finishing with a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double Sunday leading the team in scoring in Miami with 23 points.
Cade Cunningham is averaging 21.3 points, eight assists and 4.7 rebounds per game. He's been good, but he hasn't needed to be a hero. The hot starts to their wins over the Heat and Sixers were team efforts.
"Just being locked in, taking the game plan serious, and I think the togetherness of the group," Cunningham said. "We’re talking to each other and we’re making sure that everybody’s getting their way. That’s a testament to coach and the culture that he puts in, the system he puts in, but it’s the guys in the locker room. We hold each other to that system and we hold each other accountable, and we encourage and push each other."
There's a lot of season remaining. The team will face more road bumps – injuries, tough losses and everything in between. But they've absorbed the early haymakers through Week 1.
"We ain't done nothing yet, man," Jenkins said after Sunday's win. "It's the gauntlet, like you said. Until you're through the gauntlet, you don't want to speak. We're just doing what we're supposed to do, come out and playing Pistons basketball, and the results will look the way it's supposed to look.
"We’ve got an identity and every time we step on the court, no matter who’s out there, you’ve got standards and expectations. Whoever’s out there, that’s what we’re going to come out and play like. That’s all we do."
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Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on X and/or Bluesky.
Next up: Knicks
Matchup: Pistons (3-0) at New York (0-3).
Tipoff: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27; Madison Square Garden, New York.
TV/radio: NBC; WXYT-FM (97.1).
Streaming: Peacock.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons weathering the storm and looking like legit contenders again
