It took a little while, but Cade Cunningham is now enjoying winning basketball with the Detroit Pistons. No one in the NBA feels more deserving of this fortune change considering how Cunningham toiled in the trenches for the Pistons to start the 2020s. Now, Cunningham is playing as if this excellent play can be taken away from him at any given moment, and he powered the Pistons to a rather unlikely victory on Monday night, a 137-135 win over the Washington Wizards.
Now, the Wizards are one of the worst teams in the association. What made this victory that much more improbable is that the Pistons were missing a few key players, and that they were also on the second night of a back-to-back. Moreover, Cunningham even suffered a tailbone injury scare towards the end of the game, putting Detroit into an even more challenging position.
Nonetheless, Cunningham still did more than enough to get the job done for the Pistons. He recorded 46 points (albeit on 45 shot attempts), 11 rebounds, 12 assists, and five steals, becoming the first player since Michael Jordan in 1989 to record at least 40 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and five steals in a single game, according to StatMuse.
Jordan achieved this stat line on January 3, 1989, putting up 41 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, and six steals in a 126-121 win for the Chicago Bulls over the Los Angeles Clippers in overtime.
Cunningham is always putting a shift on both ends of the court, and it's his two-way play and ability to carry the Pistons offense that are powering Detroit to a 9-2 start to the season — putting them on top of the Eastern Conference.
Pistons need unsung contributions to survive Wizards scare
At the moment, the likes of Tobias Harris, Isaiah Stewart, Ausar Thompson, Jaden Ivey, and Marcus Sasser are on the mend for the Pistons. They needed someone to step up, and thankfully, an unsung hero did.
It was Daniss Jenkins that emerged as the Pistons' hero amid Cunningham's stat-sheet stuffing night. The 24-year-old sophomore guard came out of nowhere to put up 24 points to keep their offense afloat in the fourth quarter, and he drilled a game-tying triple in the corner to send the game to overtime, resulting in an eventual win for Detroit.
