A year ago, the Detroit Pistons were a punchline. Thursday night, they look like a problem. Cade Cunningham scored 25 points and dished out 10 assists — including 12 points in a decisive fourth quarter — as the Pistons handled the Cleveland Cavaliers 107-97 to seize a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
The Pistons are playing their most meaningful basketball in over a decade. And Cunningham, the franchise cornerstone, is playing like someone built for exactly this moment.
Fourth Quarter Ice
The game was close enough through three quarters that Cleveland could have told themselves a story. They couldn’t. When the fourth arrived, Cunningham flipped a switch. Twelve points, decisive reads, zero hesitation. Donovan Mitchell — one of the most reliable closers in the league — had no answer. James Harden, struggling for a second consecutive game, offered little of the shot-creation Cleveland needed.
Detroit’s supporting cast held its weight throughout. Tobias Harris delivered 21 points on efficient shooting. Duncan Robinson shot 5-of-9 from three-point range for 17 points, providing the floor spacing that made Cunningham’s drives and kick-outs devastating. The Pistons ran their offense through multiple reads and multiple players — exactly the kind of team basketball that wears defenses down over a series.
What Cleveland Has to Fix
The Cavaliers finished the regular season as one of the East’s top teams. That version of Cleveland is nowhere to be seen in this series. Harden has been a ghost in both games, unable to create the separation and ball movement Cleveland relies on. Mitchell is scoring, but he’s doing it against a defense that has already figured out his tendencies at the end of games.
Cleveland’s identity rests on perimeter pressure and transition offense. Detroit is making them play half-court, which suits the Pistons just fine — Cunningham is a significantly better half-court operator than anyone the Cavs can put in front of him.
Games 3 and 4 shift to Cleveland, where the Cavaliers will need their crowd and a significantly different game plan to survive. They’re not dead — no team down 0-2 is — but the Pistons have shown nothing this series that suggests Detroit is in over its head. If anything, the opposite is true.
Cunningham leads this team with a calm that contradicts his age. His first playoff run is looking like a statement run. The Cavaliers have a week’s worth of film study, a hostile crowd waiting, and a hole to dig out of. Whether it’s enough remains the only interesting question left about this series.
Sources: NBA.com, Boston Globe
