Basketball: Losing streak drags on for calamity Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers' nightmare season could take an even darker turn as another defeat would given them the longest losing run ever in all four major North American professional sports.

The Cavaliers, who extended their NBA-record losing run to 26 games when they lost to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, could set a new mark for futility with a defeat at home to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The downtrodden team, playing their first season without two-time reigning NBA MVP LeBron James, are currently tied with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who endured their own shameful skid over two seasons from 1976-77. The Cavaliers (8-45), whose last win came on 18 December over the New York Knicks, have lost 36 of their last 37 games.

Cleveland held the previous NBA record of 24 straight losses set over the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons.

The Cleveland Spiders set baseball's longest skid with 24 consecutive losses in 1899, but the Philadelphia Phillies set the modern day mark with 23 straight defeats in 1961.