Cade Cunningham was particular on Tuesday night time. He performed like the very best guard within the NBA. Of his 41 factors, he scored 37 of them within the second half. He went 13-of-16 from the sector and an ideal 3-of-3 from the 3-point line. When the Detroit Pistons had been down, 108-103, to the Brooklyn Nets with three minutes remaining within the sport, Cunningham scored his crew’s subsequent 10 factors.
It took him two minutes to chop the deficit to 2. Then, instantly, the Pistons had been not in a position to fireplace and so they ended up setting an NBA report with their twenty seventh consecutive loss in a season. Dorian-Finney Smith hit a back-breaking three to place the Nets up by 5 with 39 seconds left within the sport. That was adopted by a 25-foot brick from Alec Burks popping out of a timeout.
What an agonizing defeat for the Pistons and their followers. Cunningham’s efficiency was among the finest in franchise historical past. In keeping with the Bally Sports activities Detroit telecast, he’s the primary Piston to attain 35 or extra factors in a half because the 1996-97 season. Tuesday was the second time in December that Cunningham has scored a minimum of 40 factors. Nobody has carried out that in a Piston uniform since Jerry Stackhouse in 2001.
Cunningham scored each means potential throughout that two-minute stretch. He hit a stepback three, absorbed contact for an and-1, and nobody from the Nets was in a position to keep in entrance of him. If the Pistons had been in a position to pull this sport off, Cunningham’s efficiency would have been thought to be among the finest of the yr.
As a substitute, the Pistons have develop into an embarrassing reply to a trivia query. The 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers solely received 9 video games that season and so they nonetheless didn’t string collectively 27 losses in a row.
Jalen Duren returned to the ground because the Pistons beginning middle. He put up 12 factors and 15 rebounds in what was solely his 14 sport of the season as a result of ankle accidents. The additional beef within the center was a profit to the Pistons, however that and a career-high in scoring from Cunningham nonetheless resulted in a 118-112 loss to the Nets.
The Pistons weren’t alleged to be contenders within the Jap Convention, nevertheless, by bringing in Monty Williams, and Cunningham coming back from an harm that prematurely ended his 2022-23 season, dropping sufficient to achieve the report books was additionally not anticipated.
Whereas Cunningham has performed in solely simply over 100 whole NBA video games, he has carried out sufficient to show that the Pistons had been appropriate in making him the No. 1 general choice within the 2021 NBA Draft.
The entrance of the lottery is one thing they had been alleged to be able to keep away from this season, however there may be each motive to consider that they’ll once more be within the operating for the highest choose.
The Pistons have intriguing items and a rising star in Cunningham. On Tuesday night time, he placed on a signature efficiency that was in all probability the very best of his brief NBA profession. Whereas the sport was not nationally televised, the sports activities world was taking note of see if historical past could be set the day after Christmas, 2023.
Cunningham did his damndest to struggle it off, however these 41 factors weren’t sufficient to maintain the Pistons out of the historical past books.
