How did the Pistons reach this point?

I keep going back to the fourth game of the season, a game in which the Pistons, who were 2-2 at that point, lost an 18-point lead and fell to the Portland Trail Blazers by 10 points at home. The locker room had an eery feeling. Heads were dropped, spirits ripped from bodies and placed next to the dirty laundry. …The Pistons were never the same after that. 

(James L. Edwards III, The Athletic)