Pistons collapse in the 4th quarter and their postseason-record skid reaches 15 with loss to Knicks

NEW YORK (AP) — The Detroit Pistons were a little more than nine minutes from ending the longest postseason losing streak in NBA history, playing with poise for three quarters Saturday night.

A mistake-filled final quarter meant the wait will go on for the Pistons.

The New York Knicks had a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter, when Detroit had more turnovers than baskets, and won Game 1 123-112.

The Pistons were in their first playoff game since 2019 and held up well for most of it, building a a 98-90 lead early in the final period.

They trailed by 13 by the time they scored again, contributing to their own collapse with mistakes they had avoided for most of the night.

“I just thought the turnovers led to easy baskets for them,” forward Tobias Harris said.

The period started with two of them before the Pistons even got a shot, a 5-second violation on the inbounds pass to begin the period, then a 24-second shot clock violation on the next trip.

All told, the Pistons had eight turnovers in the quarter that led to 11 points. Detroit shot 7 for 22 (31.8%) and was outscored 40-21 in the fourth.

Cade Cunningham finished with 21 points and 12 assists, but shot just 8 for 21 from the field and committed six turnovers.

The star guard, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft, is the primary reason the Pistons made the playoffs as the No. 6 seed after going 44-38, a 30-win improvement that was one of the largest in NBA history from one season to the next.

“Yeah, it was definitely learning experience. Something that I’ve never done before, I’ve never been a part of,” Cunningham said. "But also, I didn’t treat like a different game. I tried to approach it like a regular game, read what the defense gives me, and exploit that. At the end of the day, it’s basketball. It’s something I’ve been doing since I was a kid. So, I don’t switch for the environment or anything.

“But, you know, this game got away from us.”

Until it did, the Pistons were on the verge of a smashing return to the postseason, before the kind of collapse their young core had avoided so well. Detroit blew an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter on opening night against Indiana, then hadn't lost when leading by eight or more in the final period since.

So it's now 15 losses and counting since their last victory, in Game 4 of the 2008 Eastern Conference finals.

“It’s a series,” Harris said, “and you can't get too high, you can’t get too low.”

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Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris (12), right, attempts to dribble past New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3), left, during the second half of Game 1 in an NBA basketball first-round playoff series, Saturday, April 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) falls as Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris (12) shoots during the second half of Game 1 in an NBA basketball first-round playoff series, Saturday, April 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Detroit Pistons forward Tobias Harris (12), right, attempts to dribble past New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3), left, during the second half of Game 1 in an NBA basketball first-round playoff series, Saturday, April 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) falls during the second half of Game 1 in an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks, Saturday, April 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) sits after falling during the second half of Game 1 in an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks, Saturday, April 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)