Cade Cunningham was particular on Tuesday evening. He performed like the perfect 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 have been down, 108-103, to the Brooklyn Nets with three minutes remaining within the sport, Cunningham scored his staff’s subsequent 10 factors.
It took him two minutes to chop the deficit to 2. Then, immediately, the Pistons have been now not capable of hearth and so they ended up setting an NBA document 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 response to the Bally Sports activities Detroit telecast, he’s the primary Piston to attain 35 or extra factors in a half for the reason that 1996-97 season. Tuesday was the second time in December that Cunningham has scored a minimum of 40 factors. Nobody has performed that in a Piston uniform since Jerry Stackhouse in 2001.
Cunningham scored each manner doable throughout that two-minute stretch. He hit a stepback three, absorbed contact for an and-1, and nobody from the Nets was capable of keep in entrance of him. If the Pistons have been capable of pull this sport off, Cunningham’s efficiency would have been thought to be among the finest of the 12 months.
As an alternative, the Pistons have change 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 heart. He put up 12 factors and 15 rebounds in what was solely his 14 sport of the season because 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 presupposed to be contenders within the Jap Convention, nonetheless, by bringing in Monty Williams, and Cunningham coming back from an damage that prematurely ended his 2022-23 season, dropping sufficient to achieve the document books was additionally not anticipated.
Whereas Cunningham has performed in solely simply over 100 whole NBA video games, he has performed sufficient to show that the Pistons have been appropriate in making him the No. 1 general choice within the 2021 NBA Draft.
The entrance of the lottery is one thing they have been presupposed to be able to keep away from this season, however there’s each purpose to consider that they may once more be within the operating for the highest choose.
The Pistons have intriguing items and a rising star in Cunningham. On Tuesday evening, he placed on a signature efficiency that was in all probability the perfect of his brief NBA profession. Whereas the sport was not nationally televised, the sports activities world was listening to see if historical past can be set the day after Christmas, 2023.
Cunningham did his damndest to combat it off, however these 41 factors weren’t sufficient to maintain the Pistons out of the historical past books.
