Pistons slip into huge, early hole, lose 13th straight

Chicago -- It's not getting any better, that's for sure.

The Pistons aren't getting any closer to winning. Actually, they're perfecting the art of being blown out: painless, very systematic, gradual.

Monday's 120-87 loss, the Pistons' 13th in a row, was similar to others during this stretch.

The Pistons (11-25) can tie the franchise record for consecutive losses in a season Tuesday in Washington.

"Not much to say," Ben Gordon said. "We're not playing our type of basketball. We just have to work ourselves out of this."

But how? For some reason, the Pistons can't sustain a quality 48 minutes of anything right now.

"We just have to keep playing through this," dejected coach John Kuester said. "Our coverages were good at times but there was just too much slippage.

"We need to play with energy. We need to share the ball and shoot with confidence. When you lose this many in a row, your confidence is shot. We need to stay together and play through this tough period."

Chicago (16-20) led 28-25 after one quarter, stretched it to 61-47 at halftime, then extended the lead to 97-69 after three quarters.

The Bulls have a promotion where scoring 100 points earns a free Big Mac for everyone in attendance. That kicked in with 11 minutes left in the game.

"You hope to come out early and take control of the game," Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. "But in this game anything can happen. Detroit has so many injuries. We shot a high percentage (57 percent) and caught Detroit at a good time."

The Pistons were without Tayshaun Prince, who was ruled out before the game because of a sore left knee. They lost Gordon after six minutes of playing time to a strained right groin.

Both players' status for tonight is unknown.

"I'm hoping for a speedy recovery," Gordon said. "Obviously, I wasn't able to play much tonight at all. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll have better luck."

Richard Hamilton scored 17 and Jonas Jerebko had 15 points and nine rebounds.

Luol Deng had 27 points and Derrick Rose 22 for the Bulls.

Here's an indication of how grim it's been for the Pistons for about the last calendar year.

Last Jan. 4, 2009, the Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Clippers, 88-87, improving their record to a season-best 21-11.

Since that high-water mark, the Pistons have gone 29-57, including getting swept in four games in the playoffs by the Cavaliers.

"We're allowing things to carry over," Ben Wallace said. "We can't feel sorry for ourselves."

Said Gordon: "There is still plenty of basketball left. The way the season is going now, everybody's had their ups and downs. I'm still optimistic once everybody gets healthy, we'll start to play the way we know we can and turn this around."