For nearly two quarters, the Detroit Pistons went toe-to-toe with the defending champs.

Then, Cade Cunningham exited the game midway through the second quarter with a left knee strain. He wasn’t having a great game — three points, three assists and three rebounds on 1-for-6 shooting — but his injury ruined his team’s chance to steal a win on the road.

The Pistons (3-33) fell, 131-114, to the Nuggets at Ball Arena. They led Denver by one point, 54-53, with three minutes left in the first half after Alec Burks knocked down a 3-pointer. The tide turned against Detroit when a misplaced inbounds pass by Killian Hayes led to Bojan Bogdanovic colliding with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

MOTOR CADE: Cunningham playing like a star. His next step: Delivering wins for Detroit Pistons.

The former Piston made both free throws, and Jamal Murray knocked down a 3-pointer on the ensuing Nuggets possession to extend their lead to seven, 61-54. The first half featured 13 lead changes and eight ties. But the Pistons trailed by eight at halftime, and lost offensive momentum in the second half after shooting 51.1% in the first.

The Pistons closed their week-long West Coast road trip 0-4, and are winless since snapping their historic 28-game losing streak on Dec. 30. They’ll play three home games this week — a back-to-back against the Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday and Wednesday before hosting the Houston Rockets on Friday.

The story of Sunday's game is Cunningham’s injury. It wasn’t immediately clear how he hurt his knee, but he did bang knees in the Pistons' game against the Golden State Warriors last Friday. He wasn’t listed on Sunday’s injury report before the game.

Jalen Duren (20 points, five rebounds, four assists) led the Pistons in scoring, and Burks, who continued his strong run of games off of the bench, added 18 points.

Denver's Jamal Murray led all scorers with 37 points in 30 minutes, and Nikola Jokic tallied four points, seven rebounds, 16 assists, five blocks and just three shot attempts.

It was another poor defensive performance for the Pistons, as the Nuggets shot 58.8% overall. The Pistons also left points on the board, going just 21-for-30 at the free throw line.

Cunningham’s injury another big blow in tough season

Detroit’s franchise player only played 11 minutes before exiting with more than six minutes remaining in the second quarter. It's unknown if the injury will keep Cunningham out for an extended period of time, but losing him on Sunday was obviously a massive blow for the Pistons, who gave up 43 points in the third while getting outscored by 15.

Cunningham entered the game averaging 23.4 points, 7.4 assists and 4.1 rebounds on the season. His last few weeks of basketball have been the best of his career, averaging 29.1 points, 8.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals on 52.7% overall shooting and 38.8% shooting from 3 in his last nine games. That stretch includes two games with at least 40 points, against the Atlanta Hawks and Brooklyn Nets.

He has appeared in all 35 of Detroit’s games this season — an accomplishment after missing 70 games last season with a shin injury that needed surgery. To date, he and Ausar Thompson are Detroit’s only players to appear in every game.

Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons add injury to insult of 131-114 loss to Nuggets