At the start of the third quarter on Thursday night, Cade Cunningham gathered his Detroit Pistons teammates for a quick meeting. Jalen Duren had just sent Trayce Jackson-Davis to the free throw line, and the Golden State Warriors’ 10-point halftime lead was now 14. The group needed to shift momentum.

Over the past few nights during the Pistons’ 10-3 stretch, this could have been the turning point that allowed them to mount a comeback. But this time it just wasn’t enough. Although the Pistons cut their lead to single digits several times, the Warriors won 107-104 at Little Caesars Arena, ending the Pistons’ five-game winning streak.

Even after forcing Stephen Curry to miss his most three-pointers of the season – the Warriors’ star shot 2 of 14 from deep – Detroit couldn’t mount an 18-point comeback on the second night of back-to-back games and was plagued by similar self-inflicted ones Problems from earlier in the season. There are valuable lessons to be learned even from defeat.

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Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff has repeatedly talked about taking steps toward sustained success. Even this loss to a Golden State team that had lost nine of its last 13 games can be an opportunity to get closer to that ultimate goal. In some ways, the fact that a standard is being set at all is an improvement, as bleak as that may sound.

“When it comes to situational basketball, that’s all you can ask for,” Bickerstaff said. “Play against experienced guys who understand situations, ends of plays, fourth quarter plays and the pressure that comes with the fourth quarter. For us it’s all a learning process. And again we have gotten better.

“We have taken great steps to become a better basketball team individually and collectively. We’ll do better on Saturday.”

While Detroit has undoubtedly made progress this season, there were setbacks in a few key areas on Thursday. The Pistons turned the ball over 14 times, accounting for 25 Warriors points. They allowed 15 offensive rebounds and Golden State outscored them 21-6 on second chances.

To its credit, however, Detroit outscored the Warriors 57-50 in the final 24 minutes, giving them 42.9 percent shooting from the field and 28.6 percent from 3-point range. The Pistons also had only two of their 14 turnovers in the second half.

“We’re taking the right steps, we’re on the right path and moving to where we want to be,” said Cunningham, who had a game-high 32 points and eight assists along with six rebounds and three steals. “We still have a long way to go. I mean, at the end of the day we want to compete for championships. Being .500 is not our goal, but you must take all the steps. We can’t skip any step and are therefore very happy to have reached this point.

“I’ve never been here in my career. A lot of the guys that were there weren’t there yet, so a big shout out to the veterans that came in and the coaching staff for sure.”

Malik Beasley, who became the second-leading scorer after Jaden Ivey was sidelined (broken fibula), scored 21 points but shot 4 of 14 from distance.

“We could have easily failed, we could have easily made excuses that it was the second night in a row,” Beasley said. “We were 10 points behind at halftime, came back, made a great run and then just couldn’t prevail. But the growth of this team shows how much we support each other.”

Tim Hardaway Jr. was late due to lower back strain. The Pistons were without two starters, but they’re more focused on finding ways to grow from losses than on who’s missing.

“I don’t want to blame it on the two-in-one game,” Cunningham said. “We can apologize for all the different factors, but that’s part of the NBA. You need to be locked in and ready to go.”

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(Photo of Golden State’s Cade Cunningham and Kyle Anderson: Rick Osentoski / Imagn Images)