Pistons basketball is back – and Cade Cunningham is here to make an MVP run.
With Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart serving their suspensions from last week’s Charlotte game, Paul Reed and Tolu Smith were responsible for the 48 minutes at center.
Detroit started this one off looking they hadn’t played in more than a week while New York got out to a quick 9-2 run before the first JB Bickerstaff timeout. However, it didn’t take long until the owner of Madison Square Garden, James Dolan Cade Cunningham,
decided it was time to put on a show. He had 14 of Detroit’s first 23 points and his only mishap was throwing a lob to Tolu Smith that only Jalen Duren could catch. The Pistons would take a 28-26 lead at the end of the first.
The second quarter featured two pretty assists early (and a dunk wedgie!) – one from Cade Cunningham through traffic to find Paul Reed for a dunk and the other from Ausar Thompson who put a two-handed rope into Tobias Harris’ chest for a knockdown corner three. Cade continued to get to his spots, finishing with eight more points in the final three minutes of the half. Detroit took a 58-48 lead at halftime behind 24 points from Cunningham.
New York clawed back and made it a 62-60 game until back-to-back Duncan Robinson threes made it 68-60. That’s when Cade turned his MVP mode on.
He had a sequence of eight straight points – bodied OG Anunoby for a layup, a midrange over OG, a poster on the entire Knicks team, and ended it with a heat check midrange. The only reason it didn’t continue was because he found Ron Holland for a wide open three. By the time it was the end of the quarter, Cade had 35 points and Detroit held a 90-79 lead.
Cunningham returned in the fourth and instantly found Javonte Green on the fastbreak with a two-handed bounce pass to give Woo an and-one dunk – it would give Cade his 10th assist of the night. Nobody on New York could guard Cunningham. At one point, they even tried recently acquired Jeremy Sochan and Cade absolutely cooked him with a stepback three for his 40th point.
To add to his MVP performance, he had three more assists before the final buzzer, including a lob to Daniss Jenkins and a needle-threader to Paul Reed on the roll. Detroit would finish with a 126-111 dominant victory over the New York Knicks.
I’m not exaggerating – this might’ve been the best basketball I’ve ever seen Cade Cunningham play. He finished with 42 points, eight rebounds, and 13 assists. He shot 17-for-34 from the field and 5-for-11 from deep. He always shows up when Detroit plays the Knicks, and with missing both key big men, Cade knew he had to put the team on his back and he delivered. It was a complete two-way performance as he scored at all three levels while also adding three stocks.
As good as Cade was, Paul Reed also deserves to be recognized tonight. He started in place of Jalen Duren and played 30 minutes. He finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one steal, and three blocks while shooting 7-for-9 from the field. Thank goodness for Bball Paul and his ability to be steadily consistent with inconsistent minutes.
I cannot recommend enough that you watch this beautiful performance on YouTube.
Give Cade the MVP trophy – tonight.
Go Stones.
