Cade Cunningham scored 20 points and hit two clutch shots in the stretch run as the Pistons won at Houston
A win in three acts: It began as a referendum on whether the Pistons did the right thing on draft night. It morphed into a validation of Troy Weaver’s decision to make Jerami Grant a pillar of his restoration project. It ended with Cade Cunningham displaying the winning DNA that perhaps ultimately elevated him over the field when it came time to exercise the No. 1 pick in July’s draft.
Grant put the Pistons in position to win, scoring 21 of his 35 points in the third quarter after another bumpy first half offensively for his team, and then Cunningham made arguably the game’s two biggest baskets after Houston rallied from 14 down to within a point.
“He’s got that gene,” Dwane Casey said of the rookie after Wednesday’s 112-104 win at Houston. “He can perform down the stretch under pressure.”
Cunningham finished with 20 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. His 3-pointer with 4:37 to play ended a 10-0 Houston run that had sliced a 14-point Pistons lead to four and his spinning layup with 1:50 to go doubled a two-point Pistons lead.
“He came out and did what he was supposed to do,” Grant said of Cunningham. “He’s a really poised, really smart basketball player. He doesn’t force it. He knows what he needs to help us win and he did that tonight.”
There were a handful of ridiculously gifted players in the mix to be the No. 1 pick and one of them was Jalen Green, taken No. 2 by Houston and vocal about his belief the Pistons erred. Green had his moments, too, finishing with 23 points. But Green was scoreless in the fourth quarter, missing all four of his shots, all from the 3-point line. And seconds after Cunningham hit his clutch triple, he drew a charging foul – on Green.
“I feel like throughout these games, I’m feeling a little more pep in my step, feeling a little more comfortable,” Cunningham said. “That’s all I can ask. I want to get better each and every day and try to be consistent. If I can just stay like that and stay level-headed – never too high, never too low – I feel the season will be fine.”
Cunningham, who missed a month and nearly all of training camp and all four preseason games, was playing in just his fifth NBA game. After missing his first 18 3-point attempts, he’s now hit 8 of 18. And all of that came after Cunningham picked up two fouls in less than four minutes to start and went to the bench, a thing that typically throws a young player out of whack for the rest of the night.
“I didn’t like that I kind of took myself out of it so early,” he said. “I should’ve been a little bit smarter. I want to be out there to help my team, but I know my teammates are going to have my back and do their jobs as well.”
Nobody did their job quite like Grant, who helped the Pistons establish control with a torrid third quarter in which he hit 7 of 10 shots, 2 of 4 from the 3-point arc and all five of his free throws.
“We’ve been letting up a lot in the third quarter, so just had to pick the team up,” Grant said. “Do what we could to get the lead.”
“He got us going,” Casey said. “His ability to attack the paint, get to the rim, set up his 3-point shooting. It was big for us. We needed every one of ’em.”
The synergy between Grant and Cunningham is perhaps the biggest takeaway of Cunningham’s first two weeks, Cunningham’s ability to make plays with the ball and make shots off of it accentuating Grant’s one-on-one scoring chops and 3-point stroke.
“The teammate that JG is, is what makes it so easy for us to lean on him and put so much trust into him to make those plays,” Cunningham said. “It’s not like he’s ever forcing it or mad other guys are taking shots. You see what he did today. Having that on your side and to be able to go to that whenever we want and get a solid look any time, it’s huge for us.”
The Pistons don’t figure to have to lean on Grant quite as persistently as they did a season ago now that he’s got a sidekick like Cunningham. Despite the time lost due to injury, the fact he’s already exhibiting the same late-game magic that marked his career as a prep, as an AAU star and during his lone college season at Oklahoma State has to make Weaver and Casey feel awfully optimistic about what comes next for the Pistons. “That’s what we saw in college,” Casey said. “Seemed like the bigger the moments, the better he played and that’s kind of showing through right now. Some guys just have ‘it.’ I feel comfortable with him with the ball. We ran some plays for him down the stretch. That’s one reason why we drafted him. And we’re happy we did.”