On Sunday afternoon, point guard Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons had a chance to pick up one of their most impressive wins over the season in a tightly-contested affair with the Miami Heat. Cunningham had the ball in his hands–the shot clock turned off–on what should have been the final possession with regulation, and the Pistons star eyed the clock as it reached ten seconds left.
And then, for some inexplicable reason, Cunningham decided to shoot as opposed to holding the ball for a final attempt at the buzzer and denying the Heat a chance to possess the ball. Instead, Miami grabbed the rebound and Bam Adebayo delivered instant karma in the form of a buzzer-beating three to win the game.
After the game, Cunningham broke down his thought process on the JR Smith-like blunder.
“Held it for a little bit, tried to run the clock a little bit,” said Cunningham, per Mike Curtis of the Detroit News on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “I liked the matchup I had so I knew I was going to take that on. The last two plays, we already decided I was going to pull up. I read they were about to come double me and I tried to keep my matchup. Missed the shot. Flowed down. Bam hit his whatever three of the year. Big time shot, but that's just a tough loss. This one hurt.”
The Pistons will try to get the bad taste out of their mouth when they travel to face the Boston Celtics on Monday evening.
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