DETROIT (AP) — The stunning turnaround season for the Detroit Pistons ended Sunday night with a harsh reminder of how difficult the final step can be.
After winning 60 games and earning the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Pistons were overwhelmed at home by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who rolled to a 125-94 victory in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Detroit, which forced the deciding game with a road win Friday night, never found its footing offensively and struggled to match Cleveland’s physicality and pace from the opening tip. The Pistons shot just 35.3% from the floor, were outscored 58-34 in the paint and trailed by as many as 35 points in the second half.
“It sucked,” All-Star Cade Cunningham said. “Being back home, definitely wanted to get this win for the fans. Reminded me of last year, losing on the home court. It’s not a great feeling.
“So I hadn’t been thinking about the offseason, so my mind’s been racing now, trying to figure out what I got to do, what it’s going to look like.”
The abrupt ending came just two years after Detroit endured one of the worst seasons in NBA history. The Pistons finished 14-68 during the 2023-24 season and set an NBA single-season record with 28 consecutive losses before emerging this year as one of the league’s biggest surprises under coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
Despite the lopsided defeat, Bickerstaff refused to call the ending a disappointment.
“It’s not a disappointment at all,” Bickerstaff said. “Not ever will I be disappointed in these guys. These guys every single day give us what they got. So it is not a disappointment. It’s a loss, and it’s a tough loss. But that adjective will never be used.”
Bickerstaff repeatedly praised the growth and resilience of a roster that rapidly developed into a contender.
“This team is awesome, and they’re a special group of guys,” he said. “I couldn’t be more appreciative of how they allow us to coach them, work with them every single day. The spirit they carry, their willingness to grow, their willingness to sacrifice. It’s a special group.”
Ausar Thompson said the loss will fuel the Pistons moving forward.
“We have to get better as a team, but I’m focused on what I can do to not be in this situation again,” Thompson said. “It sucks, but you can’t take it back. We already lost.”
Cleveland controlled the game almost immediately.
The Cavaliers turned Detroit’s cold shooting into transition opportunities while building a 31-22 lead after one quarter. After the Pistons scored the first two baskets of the second, Cleveland answered with a 24-9 run to take command and carried a 64-47 advantage into halftime.
Detroit pulled within 17 in the third quarter before Cleveland buried any comeback hopes behind a dominant stretch from Donovan Mitchell, who scored 15 of his 26 points in the period.
Jarrett Allen and Sam Merrill each added 23 points for the Cavaliers, while Evan Mobley finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds as Cleveland advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2018.
“They had X-factor guys that had the ability to contribute,” Bickerstaff said. “We knew it was going to be a tough series and a tough test for us, but just like we did last year, we’ll learn from it. We’ll put it in our pocket, we’ll get better from it, and next year we’ll grow and be a better team.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren (0) talks with head coach J.B. Bickerstaff during the first half in Game 7 of a second-round NBA playoffs basketball series Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) is hugged by Duncan Robinson as Kevin Huerter, left, and Tolu Smith wait late in the fourth quarter of a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers during Game 7 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — They call themselves the Flying Kiwis, an eclectic group of New Zealanders from around the world who, whenever their national soccer team plays a major match, assemble to provide raucous and usually outnumbered support.
The deliberate irony: Kiwis — the eponymous bird from which New Zealanders take their nickname — are flightless.
Since 2009 the Flying Kiwis have followed the New Zealand men's team at home and overseas and they'll be at the World Cup, offering a small island of loud, proud and distinctly Kiwi support.
In 2009, New Zealand played Bahrain in a two-game qualifying series, with the winner advancing to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. After the first leg in Bahrain ended in a 0-0, New Zealand needed a win in the return match at home to qualify for the World Cup.
Matt Fejos, who was then a university student and, he admits, not a hard-core football fan, wanted to lend as much spirit as possible to the New Zealand team.
“So I got a credit card with a $1,000 limit and I bought 32 tickets for my mates and we wanted to do all we could, so we got banners and we got the coveralls saying Flying Kiwis and we got New Zealand flags,” Fejos said. “That was a pretty memorable moment for anyone who was there and for football to arrive in New Zealand a little bit.”
Now those friends are spread around the world and have brought in other friends to the Flying Kiwis.
“I had 10 years living in the UK, so with the Confederations Cup in Russia in 2017, there were 30 of us who went to that and it was kind of a special experience,” Fejos said. Russian people “organized a friendly game between our fans and their fans and it brought in another kind of meaning for me: that you’re doing it for your team but actually in far away places you might be the first New Zealanders they’ve ever met, so you’re kind of representing your country.
“To connect with the world through the global language of football is a beautiful thing and a beautiful way to travel.”
The Flying Kiwis had to find their way to their own brand of fandom. Soccer is not the major sport in New Zealand, where rugby holds sway. The soccer traditions that are firmly fixed in the culture of other countries don’t exist at home, so Fejos and his friends have made their own.
The Flying Kiwis support section is usually small in number compared with the fan bases of New Zealand’s opponents but, Fejos said, “There’s advantages to being so small — we can be really unified.”
The New Zealand team will probably need all the support it can get at the World Cup. Ranked No. 85 in the world, they are drawn in Group G against No. 9 Belgium, No. 21 Iran and No. 29 Egypt.
“There’s so much more belief (among the New Zealand team) because of where the players are playing,” Fejos said of the foreign-based national team members. “There’s so many more playing at a top, top standard and in these difficult environments, these really charged atmospheres with crazy passionate fans. So they’re used to playing under that pressure as well.”
The kiwi isn't the most intimidating of national symbols compared with other mascots such as eagles or lions.
“Sometimes it can seem a bit funny or deprecating but it’s a thing that means a lot,” Fejos said. “The Kiwi is a flightless bird but when you consider the challenges that we face: we’re so isolated, so far away from the world, the professional game is very young here, there are not many professional academies or opportunities.
“Despite that, I think it’s incredible for some of those (New Zealand) players to play in some of the best leagues of the world and to take it to the world at a World Cup."
Fejos said the “metaphor means a lot, defying expectations overseas.”
“People think of us as a rugby country, and probably as hobbits, but that allows us to go in with that underdog mentality, fearless,” he said. "We want to stamp our mark and show them something different.”
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
FILE - New Zealand's players celebrate after Chris Wood scored during their Confederations Cup Group A soccer match against Mexico in Sochi, Russia, June 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
