Two weeks ago, the Pistons had a nondescript loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in what seemed _ at the time, at least _ to be just some dwindling grains of sand in the hourglass of a lost season. It was their 11th loss in the previous 12 games, dropping them to the fifth-worst record in the league.
Ho, hum. Five weeks left until the offseason.
In the postgame locker room, I found Christian Wood, one of the Pistons' few bright spots this season, and sat next to him. I asked Wood whether he thought his best season was worthy of consideration for the NBA's Most Improved Player award and whether it was lost in the Pistons' losses.
"I just want to help us win," Wood answered.
That was the night before the NBA imposed distancing rules between players and media. I spent Monday in New York before taking a tense train ride _ not touching anything in the train station and sanitizing all around my seat on the way _ to Philadelphia for Wednesday's game.
The Pistons lost to the Sixers and I had finished writing the game story.
That's when everything stopped.
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