Only eight NBA franchises have had losing streaks of 20 games or more, but now the Detroit Pistons are challenging for the longest single-season slump ever.

Detroit’s last win came before Halloween, on Oct. 28 against the Chicago Bulls. The Pistons have lost 25 consecutive games, the latest at 119-111 lost at home to Utah on Thursday night that left the crowd chanting “Sell the team! Sell the team!” in a loud statement to owner Tom Gores and his Platinum Equity firm.

The Pistons can tie the NBA record of 26 straight losses Saturday night at Brooklyn. They’ll have a chance to set a record, also against the Nets, on Tuesday.

“That’s history that nobody wants to be a part of,” guard Cade Cunningham said to the Associated Press. “We’re trying to build something that’s sustainable. It’s not like we’re trying to just go out there and win one game. We want to win multiple games. But to be on the wrong side of history, I mean, nobody wants to be there, so that is definitely an extra edge that we have to have.”

The losing started on Oct. 30 and it hasn’t stopped. Routed recently by Philadelphia and Milwaukee, the Pistons had a chance to pull out a victory Thursday against a short-handed Utah team, but committed 21 turnovers that led to 27 points in a 119-111 loss.

Coach Monty Williams, frustrated by the Pistons’ carelessness that he said has been a season-long problem, was asked afterward about his team’s mindset.

“You can just about imagine. You have these kinds of opportunities, you’ve lost 25 in a row, like, you’re probably not in a great mental state,” he told the Associated Press. “But again, what choice do you have but to fight and compete and dig your way out of it? But it’s human nature to feel like you know what and that’s where we are.”

Here’s a look at some of the longest single-season losing skids in American sports history:

NBA

The 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers share the longest single-season losing skids in NBA history, having lost 26 consecutive games during their respective seasons. Both teams finished those campaigns with 19-63 records.

In the wake of LeBron James’s offseason decision to leave Cleveland for Miami, the Cavaliers struggled early in the 2010-11 season. The team’s first double-digit losing run began in late November and ended with an overtime win against the New York Knicks. Immediately after that win, the Cavaliers lost 26 straight starting Dec. 20 and ending with a Feb. 11 overtime win against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Philadelphia’s skid started on Jan. 31, 2014, and ran until March 27, 2014.

The following year, the 76ers were hardly better, closing that season on a losing run that extended into the 2015-16 campaign. The slump lasted 28 games across two seasons, the longest in NBA history.

MLB

The 1961 Philadelphia Phillies hold the record for the longest losing streak since the beginning of the Modern Era (after 1900) with 23 straight defeats. The team’s losing slide began July 29 and lasted until the second game of an Aug. 20 doubleheader. When the skid stopped, the Phillies were 42 games behind the National League leader.

That victory, which came against the Milwaukee Braves, started a four-game winning streak that was Philadelphia’s longest of that season. The team finished with a 47-107 record.

NFL

The 2008 Detroit Lions became the first NFL team to finish the regular season with a winless record since the season was extended to 16 games in 1978. Nearly a decade later, the Cleveland Browns matched that ignominy, losing all 16 games during the 2017 season (the league added a 17th game to its regular season schedule in 2021).

The Lions and the Browns are two of four teams to suffer through winless seasons since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were winless in their inaugural 1976 season (0-14) and the Baltimore Colts had eight losses and a tie in the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season.

Look before the merger and beyond a single season, and you’ll find the Chicago Cardinals, who lost 29 consecutive games from 1942 through 1945. The 1976-1977 Buccaneers own the longest losing streak since the merger (26 consecutive defeats).

NHL

The 2003-04 Pittsburgh Penguins and 2020-21 Buffalo Sabres share the record for the longest losing streak in a season at 18 games.

Pittsburgh, under Coach Eddie Olczyk and team captain Mario Lemieux, finished at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with a 23-47-8 record. The Penguins’ slide began around the midway point of that season, lasting from Jan. 13, 2004, until their Feb. 25, 2004, overtime win against the Phoenix Coyotes.

The Sabres could not prevent their own 18-game skid during the abridged 2020-21 season, which was shortened because of the pandemic and began in January 2021. They won six games before the losing streak, which ran from mid-February to the end of March, concluding with a March 31 win over Philadelphia. Buffalo fared slightly better after that, winning another eight games during the final two months of the season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report