How Cade Cunningham inspired Detroit Pistons biggest rally of the season in Portland
PORTLAND, Ore — The Detroit Pistons displayed all the hallmarks of a basketball team too weary to compete.
Six players had departed the team via trade in the previous 36 hours, and they were coming off of an upset road win over the Sacramento Kings a night prior. Only nine players — including two-way players Stanley Umude and Jared Rhoden — were available Thursday night. And Umude and Rhoden arrived in Portland just hours before the game.
With just over a minute to play until halftime, the Pistons trailed the Portland Trail Blazers by 20 points. They were struggling to take care of the ball, a step slow defensively. On the second night of a back-to-back, their energy level was low.
But Cade Cunningham delivered a speech at halftime, and they emerged from the locker room a changed squad. Despite trailing by 23 points with five minutes to play in the third quarter, the Pistons surged to a comeback overtime win over the Blazers, 128-122. They won the fourth quarter by 13 points then held Portland to 1-for-9 shooting in the extra period.
Boos followed the Blazers as they walked back to their locker room. The Pistons, on the other hand, radiated joy in the away locker room around the corner. Two games into a five-game West Coast swing, they’re 2-0 overall.
“It’s no way that the team wanted to win worse than us, with where we’re at and everything that’s going on with us throughout the season,” Cunningham, who missed Wednesday’s win due to left knee injury management, said. “That should never be the case. I didn’t want people to be looking ahead to (Los Angeles) or looking ahead to the trips that’s coming up. We gotta take care of our business and we have to fight every night. That was the main thing, I wanted us to fight.”
“Honestly, Deuce cut into everybody,” Jalen Duren added, referring to Cunningham by his nickname. “We all knew what was going on. We all knew we weren’t playing nowhere near how we were supposed to be playing. He got the message across and let guys know to pick it up. We haven’t done nothing. Last night’s win is over and it’s time to come out and get another one.”
WHEELING AND DEALING: Pistons upgrade wing rotation, maintain flexibility in busy trade deadline
Only seven players on Detroit’s main roster — Cunningham, Duren, Jaden Ivey, Marcus Sasser, James Wiseman, Ausar Thompson and Mike Muscala — were available up as the team awaits the players added at Thursday' trade deadline.
Jalen Duren tallied the second 20-20 game of his career — and this month — with 27 points, 22 rebounds (eight offensive) and three blocks. Ivey scored 26 points, a night after leading Detroit with a career-high 37 points in Sacramento, and knocked down all seven of his 3-point attempts. Cunningham scored 23 points and dished out five assists, and rookie Marcus Sasser had a 17-point, 11-assist double-double.
Ivey knocked down a pair of 3-pointers during a 21-5 run that turned an impending blowout, at 92-69, into a 97-90 challenge early in the fourth. Cunningham (10 points), Duren (10 points) and Sasser (9 points) all scored big baskets down the stretch, and Thompson tied the game at 120 to send it into overtime with a fastbreak dunk, generated by Sasser, who pushed the ball down the court after a missed 3 by Portland.
Sasser kept rolling in overtime, knocking down a pull-up 3-pointer following a block by Duren to give Detroit its first lead since the first quarter, 124-122. After a flat start, they matched Portland’s energy and got key stops in crunch time. They also turned the ball over just six times in the second half and overtime, after committing eight in the first quarter.
It was far from a flawless win, but the Pistons were able to step up late, rather than wilt away. Blown leads have been a recurring issue all season. Wednesday’s upset, and Thursday’s comeback, show growth.
“We’re starting to understand that you’re never out of a game,” head coach Monty Williams said. “We were down 20-plus points, and we got stop after stop after stop, changed up our defenses a little bit.
“We had every excuse, from an NBA perspective, to give in, after the trades, back-to-back travel, all of that. It’s just pretty cool to see our guys just hang in there. We had (Rhoden) and (Umude) jump on a plane, they’re in the rotation. You never know in this league, and you always have to prepare yourself to be ready when your name is called.”
It had been an emotionally trying two days for the Pistons, who said goodbye to beloved veterans Bojan Bogdanovic, Alec Burks and Monte Morris — departing via trade — as well as waived fourth-year guard Killian Hayes. They managed to avoid a post-deadline hangover.
“It’s a lot that goes on,” Cunningham said. “It’s the business of the league. It’s hard to get used to that stuff and build relationships with these people. You care about your teammates, and for them to leave us, it’s tough on everybody. We definitely had to deal with that. But also, we didn’t want to make excuses. We wanted to come in, compete and leave it all out there and see what we come out with. We did that. It took us a while to get it going, but we did that and we won.”
THE FUTURE: Pistons trades should answer critical question: Can Cade Cunningham & Jaden Ivey co-exist?
The Pistons, who suffered a 28-game losing streak to start the season 2-29, suddenly have won four of eight games. Their two-game win streak is their first since October. They once appeared destined to finish with the NBA’s worst record for the second year in a row, but now trail the Washington Wizards by a mere 1½ games and the Charlotte Hornets by 2½.
It took more than half of the season, but they’ve found a rhythm. With so many new players incoming, Detroit’s goal is to keep the good times going.
“We’re only halfway through, just about halfway through, not even to All-Star break yet,” Duren said. “Season’s not over yet. We still can kinda turn this thing around a little bit and leave with a better feeling than how we started. That’s the energy now. We’ve got some new faces coming in and excited to get them in and get them on the same boat as us and keep this thing rolling.”
[ MUST WATCH: Trade deadline reaction show, below. Make "The Pistons Pulse" your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify). ]
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons ridiculous rally sparked by Cade Cunningham speech
