These 3 bonehead plays sum up Detroit Pistons joke of a season in a nutshell

The Detroit Pistons' groundbreaking night atop the NBA record books can be summed up in a handful of bizarre, head-scratching plays that made them look like the Washington Generals.

Unfortunately for Alec Burks, he was a culprit in three plays that went horribly wrong Tuesday night, in the Pistons' 27th straight loss — an entertaining seesaw that culminated in a 118-112 win for the Brooklyn Nets at a lively Little Caesars Arena.

To be clear, Burks wasn't alone in his failings — Bojan Bogdanovic played defense like a stiff 50-year-old at your local rec center, Jaden Ivey and Cade Cunningham each missed both free throws on trips to the line in the second half, and James Wiseman played like, well, James Wiseman.

But these three plays stuck out as both particularly egregious and hilarious.

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The first play came in transition in the first half, when Burks dumped a pass off Isaiah Stewart's head. The Nets raced up-court, clanked a 3-ball but recovered the rebound and got another wide-open 3. Bin-go.

Pathetic effort here. Why are Pistons players walking around on defense like they're at a park sightseeing?

The Pistons were down five with 38 seconds remaining, but had Cunningham on a heater destroying the Nets, literally. Out of a timeout, Burks decided to chuck a contested deep 3.

Coach Monty Williams later said the play was drawn up to get Cunningham a look in the corner, but the play was quickly hijacked by Burks with Cunningham easily covered by the Nets switching every screen.

In short, there was time to improvise and get the ball to Cunningham, who had 35 points in the half at this point. He finished with 41 for the game, the lone source of joy in this unmitigated disaster season.

Poorly constructed, poorly coached, poorly executed. Your 2023 Detroit Pistons!

The final act was straight out of a SportsCenter Not Top 10. Even the Harlem Globetrotters don't make the Generals do stuff like this.

Watch as Burks catapults a pass way over Ivey's head and into the courtside seats with a few seconds remaining. Sigh.

The next opportunity for the Pistons (2-28) to win is Thursday at the Boston Celtics (23-6) in a matchup of the NBA's worst team against the league's best. Don't bet on an upset happening.

The Celtics are 14-0 at home and coming off three straight blowout wins out west, including an 11-point victory on Christmas Day over the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics are rated the No. 3 offense while the Pistons own the No. 26 defense.

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So when will the next win come? They'll need to beat either Boston or Toronto to avoid going two calendar months without a victory.

That's right, the last time the Pistons won (Oct. 28 vs. Chicago), the Arizona Diamondbacks the same night were knotting the World Series at 1-1. Can you see me shaking my head? (The Detroit Lions own a 13-9 lead over the Pistons for wins in the 2023 calendar year despite playing 56 fewer games. Real stat.)

The Pistons' upcoming schedule for the next 10 games:

• Thursday: at Boston (23-6)

• Saturday: Toronto (11-18)

• Monday: at Houston (15-13)

• Jan. 3: at Utah (13-18)

• Jan. 5: at Golden State (15-15)

• Jan. 7: at Denver (22-10)

• Jan. 9: Sacramento (17-12)

• Jan. 10: San Antonio (4-25)

• Jan. 12: Houston (15-13)

• Jan. 15: at Washington (5-24)

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons record-setting loss summed up in 3 blooper-reel plays