Cade Cunningham was named an All-Star on Thursday, and on Friday he proved he deserved it by dropping 40 points in the Detroit Pistons’ 117-102 win against the Dallas Mavericks.
When Cunningham was breaking down defenders and making off-balance layups to seal the win for the Pistons in the fourth quarter, the crowd started showing Detroit’s first All-Star since Blake Griffin with MVP chants.
After surviving an early scoring blitz from the Mavericks, the Pistons settled in and were able to play at their own pace on offense and amp up their intensity to start creating turnovers and second-chance opportunities.
With Isaiah Stewart suspended (on his Bobblehead night, no less), the Pistons needed and received big games from both Jalen Duren and Paul Reed. Duren was, as always, an eager roller to the rim, and he scored 16 points courtesy of several alley-oops from Cunningham and Marcus Sasser. He also had 14 rebounds and dished five assists.
Reed also played strong minutes off the bench. He had six points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench, and did some nice work on offense when the Mavericks went zone in the fourth quarter. He would find the gaps in coverage within the paint and sink the short jumper, move the ball, or drive toward the rim.
Sasser also delivered the exact kind of game the Pistons need from him while Cunningham sits. He played engaged defense and he looked to press scoring opportunities, driving into his patented soft floater and stretching the floor with his shot, which created space for rebounding opportunities for Detroit’s bigs.
Tobias Harris contributed a strong and efficient 17 points courtesy of isolation opportunities against smaller defenders that allowed him to bully his way into preferred spots for a smooth step-back jumper.
Really, though, it was the Cade show. Cunningham, who tied a career high, had just about everything in his bag working. He was able to curl off screens into threes. He was able to create the separation needed to shake his defender and drive into the lane. He was hitting off the high glass, off balance, and with aggression — whatever move he needed to turn to to create an advantage.
There are two critical areas for Cade if he wants to go from star to superstar status — eliminate careless turnovers and improve his finishing at the rim. On the latter, he has made some real progress.
Courtesy of Dan Favale, Cunningham is 28-of-39 (71.7%) over his past seven games, including 10-of-14 against the Mavs.
Some highlights, also courtesy of Favale:
The win allows the Pistons to get back to .500 and start their season-long six-game homestand on the right note. They will next face the Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon. We will see how long it takes the next round of MVP chants to break out.