The Detroit Pistons netted their 10th game of the season thanks to excellent performances from several core players in a 118-112 win against the Brooklyn Nets at Little Caesars Arena. The Pistons were led by Cade Cunningham’s 32 points, 11 assists, and a brilliant closeout in crunch time. Jaden Ivey was also electric for much of the game, scoring a game-high 34 points and sinking six three-pointers after struggling from the perimeter for weeks.
Cade’s big night sent him into the history books as the sixth-fastest player in NBA history to score 2,500 career points and dish 800 assists. Cunningham did it in 128 games, faster than everyone except for Oscar Robertson (83 games), Allen Iverson (111), Luka Doncic (114), Trae Young (114), and LeBron James (123).
The most promising development was Cunningham’s performance late with the game still in doubt. The game was tied at 98 with 6:32 remaining in the fourth. The rest of the way, the Nets managed to score 14 points while Cunnningham scored 13 points by himself while shooting 4-of-5 from the field. He put the Nets away, and that is exactly what you want your star player to do.
The Pistons made a statement early, attacking the Nets slender defense inside and coaxing them into several early turnovers while building an early 18-point lead in the first quarter. Then Detroit made an equally Pistons-esque statement by barfing up the lead completely courtesy of a terrible bench performance, unforced live-ball turnovers, and an inability to guard the perimeter.
By halftime, the Nets had crawled all the way back and built a 57-54 lead. At that point, the Pistons had already committed 12 turnovers and allowed the Nets to drain 10 three-pointers.
Detroit was not able to solve its turnover problem at all in the second half, committing 22 on the night, but the Nets only made seven threes in the second half and Cunningham and Ivey were able to hit several big shots.
It was also a great performance from rookie Ausar Thomspon who had several highlight-worthy dunks and sank a couple nice threes after being able to set his feet and square up. Thompson finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. It was a great night for Ausar to show out as a shooter, as a driver, and as a defender as he was going up against his former coach with Overtime Elite, Kevin Ollie. Ollie was also the prohibitive favorite to land the Pistons job before they scooped up Monty Williams on a record-setting contract.
Jalen Duren had a great early stretch in the game where he was able to dominate with his size and speed against Brooklyn’s small front court. Then he had an absolutely horrible stretch where he couldn’t keep track of Nic Claxton and was not sealing off any of Brooklyn’s drives to the rim. He rebounded nicely in the fourth quarter and helped the Pistons build up a comfortable lead again late in the game. He finished with a 12-point, 14-rebound double-double.
Finally, James Wiseman had a particularly solid performance off the bench. It was a nice matchup for the embattled big man as he was able to capitalize on his length against a Nets defense that didn’t have the low center-of-gravity type bigs who could push him around or punish him for poor positioning. More than that, though, Wiseman set several quality screens and passed the ball quickly and in rhythm when the situation called for it. He had 10 points and three rebounds in 12 minutes of action.
The Nets were led by Dennis Schroder’s 31 points. he was able to abuse several Pistons defenders — most notably Ivey and Evan Fournier. Anytime he wasn’t shaking free of them for an easy drive to the rim, he was camping out on the perimeter and hitting deep threes. He was 5-of-7 from deep, continuing a hot stretch since arriving in Brooklyn.
The win is Detroit’s 10th of the season and gives them a little breathing room away from the Washington Wizards in the race to the bottom of the standings.