Midway through the second quarter, Cade Cunningham lost a defender with a behind-the-back dribble and dumped it off to Marvin Bagley III for a dunk. It extended the Detroit Pistons’ lead to 16 — their biggest of the game.

They could only sustain their momentum for the first 21 minutes, however. From that point on, the Philadelphia 76ers outscored them 81-57 to hand the Pistons (2-8) their seventh straight loss, 114-106, in Detroit’s first NBA In-Season Tournament game.

Killian Hayes continued his run of strong play, finishing with 23 points, six assists and six rebounds. Cunningham added 21 points and seven assists, and rookie Ausar Thompson tallied a double-double with 12 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks for Detroit (2-8).

The Pistons were ailing once again, as Joe Harris (shoulder sprain), Bojan Bogdanovic (right calf strain), Monte Morris (right quad strain), Isaiah Livers (left ankle sprain) Alec Burks (left forearm contusion) and Jaden Ivey (illness) all missed the game.

Their injury woes grew worse when Jalen Duren was ruled out for the night with right ankle soreness early in the fourth quarter. The second-year big has already missed two games because of ankle soreness, and his status will be monitored ahead of Sunday’s game against the Bulls in Chicago.

It appears Ivey is trending in the right direction after missing four straight contests, though. Head coach Monty Williams confirmed that a viral infection kept him out of Detroit’s four games this week. But he’s feeling better, and was present at shootaround Friday morning.

Pistons start strong, finish slow

Cunningham and Hayes got going early to help the Pistons open the game with a tone-setting 17-7 run. The 2021 No. 1 overall pick knocked down his first four shots — all from midrange — and Hayes added a midrange jumper of his own and a sidestep 3-pointer in that span.

Detroit opened the game strong defensively, holding the Sixers to 31% shooting in the first half while hitting 46.7% of their own attempts. Another midrange jumper by Hayes with 3:21 left before halftime extended Detroit’s lead to 15, 56-21. From there, though, the Sixers took control.

Philadelphia closed the second quarter with a 7-0 run to cut Detroit’s lead to eight entering halftime, and kept rolling by outscoring the Pistons by 14 in the fourth quarter. The Sixers took their first lead, 72-71, with 3:22 remaining in the third after Joel Embiid (33 points, 16 rebounds, 16-for-19 at the line), knocked down a pair of free throws.

The reigning MVP lived at the free throw line, matching the Pistons’ attempts through the first three quarters (15-for-17) by himself while making 14. Detroit led the league with 24.9 personal fouls per game entering Friday. The Sixers ended up taking 41 free throws, nearly doubling Detroit’s 22 attempts.

The Pistons trailed by six at the end of the third. De’Anthony Melton opened the final period with a 3-pointer, and Tyrese Maxey followed with a layup to push Philadelphia’s lead to double-digits. Then, consecutive turnovers led to consecutive Sixers layups that pushed their lead to 15 with 9:02 remaining.

Harris hit two free throws with 4:05 to play to extend Philadelphia’s lead to 17, 107-90. In addition to the free throw disparity, the Pistons committed 18 turnovers leading to 29 points for the Sixers.

Pistons kick off tourney play

The Pistons’ hardwood floor underwent a makeover before the game. Two-thirds of the court was a shade of light gray, with a big red stripe going down the middle. An image of the NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament trophy, adorned the halfcourt line, with a chunky-cursive “Detroit” running over it in white.

Friday was Detroit’s inaugural In-Season Tournament game, the first of four games in the round-robin group state against Group A: the Sixers, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers. The Pistons next host the Hawks on Tuesday, then face the remaining two teams on the road the following week. The top team in each of six groups, plus the next best team from each conference, advance to the semifinals in Las Vegas on Dec. 7.

“I do think it’s great for the NBA, the willingness to take a shot at this and expand the audience in this way,” Williams said before Friday’s game. “Obviously we’ve done this overseas for years. I think it’s a good idea to take chances like this, and I think it’ll work out. I think you just have to go through it. And once everyone sees the excitement of the teams that make it to Vegas, I think more players will get on board.

“Any time you have more things to play for, it creates incentives to create motivation,” he continued. “I think when you play in this game for a while, unfortunately if we’re all honest we can all get caught up in the monotony, even though we’re all well-paid and we get to do things most people can never dream of, it still becomes your life and you take it for granted. So when you have these incentives, I think it creates a different motivation for you.”