Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons aren’t giving up just yet.
Cunningham went off in a historic battle with Paolo Banchero on Wednesday night to keep the Pistons alive this spring. Cunningham dropped 45 points to lead them to a 116-109 win over the Orlando Magic in Game 5 of their opening-round playoff series.
That cut the Magic’s lead in the series to 3-2 and forced a Game 6 later this week back in Florida.
Cunningham shot 13-of-23 from the floor and 5-of-8 from behind the arc while picking up his 45 points, which set a new Pistons single-game playoff record. That passed a mark set by Dave Bing back in 1968.
While the Pistons are still in a dangerous position after falling into a 3-1 hole to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, their postseason hopes aren’t gone just yet.
“We’re at our best when our backs are against the wall,” Cunningham said on Amazon after the win. “We know it’s going to be an uphill battle right now, we dug ourselves a big hole. It’s going to be a tough one to climb out of, but we handled business tonight.”
Cunningham takes off in second quarter
The Pistons tried to take control of the game early, and nearly ran away with it. To their credit, their offense looked better than it has the entire series.
Detroit put up 66 points in the first half behind 27 from Cunningham, who went 8-of-14 from the field and had 20 in the second quarter alone. His 27 points marked the highest scoring postseason half by a Pistons player in the play-by-play era.
At one point, the Pistons even built up a 17 point lead. But the Magic just never went away, and ended the half on a quick 7-0 burst to get within just two possessions at the break. Banchero had 22 points at half.
Orlando kept going out of the break, too, and cut the game to just two points almost instantly. But that was as close as they got. Cunningham added 10 more in the third and got Detroit’s lead back to double digits entering the fourth quarter.
Banchero kept the Magic in it early in the fourth quarter, responding with a huge play every time that the Pistons appeared to be pulling away. Banchero drilled a wild contested 3-pointer with about a minute left on the clock to bring them back within just three points, too.
But Cunningham responded perfectly with a fadeaway jumper of his own on the other end, which ended up being enough to seal the deal. From there, the Pistons held on to grab the seven-point win and extend the series.
Banchero finished with 45 points for the Magic, which was just shy of their single-game playoff scoring record. He had 18 points in the final period, and went 17-of-31 from the field. Desmond Bane finished with 18 points, and Anthony Black added 19 off the bench. But the Magic went just 16-of-30 from the free throw line, which left plenty of points out there.
Tobias Harris had with 23 points and eight rebounds to go with Cunningham’s 45-point outing for the Pistons. Both Duncan Robinson and Jalen Duren had 12 points each, too. The Pistons shot just shy of 50% from the field, and out-rebounded the Magic by 16.
The Pistons are still on the brink of elimination, which is a stunning place for the team that dominated in the East all season long. Only six No. 8 seeds have ever knocked off a No. 1 seed in the playoffs, most recently back in 2023. The Magic will have a prime opportunity to become the seventh starting on Friday on their home court.
Yet Cunningham and the Pistons looked much better, and like a team capable of making a postseason run that hasn’t been seen in Detroit in nearly two decades. They’ll just have to be perfect the next two games to have that shot.
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