With their superstar in street clothes, the Detroit Pistons stayed afloat.
They didn't need Cade Cunningham to clinch a top-six NBA playoffs berth for the first time in 17 years on Friday, defeating the Toronto Raptors on the road. It was the final of six straight games Cunningham missed with a left calf contusion, before returning Saturday at Little Caesars Arena.
The Pistons went 4-2 without Cunningham, who scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the Pistons' 109-103 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. The run without Cunningham included three straight home wins (against the New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers) and then consecutive road losses against the Minnesota Timberwolves (in a game that saw head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and three players ejected, with the players later suspended) and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
At 43-35, with the postseason locked up, it's a result the Pistons will take.
"It’s huge," Cunningham said in the locker room after Saturday's loss. "We’ve got a 'next man up' mentality every day. To see guys plug in and do what they did like that, it means a lot to the group. It’s just a testament to their professionalism and the way they worked throughout the year and prepared themselves."
Cunningham, who was restricted to 28 minutes against the Grizzlies, is back with four games left in the regular season. He suffered his left calf injury against the Dallas Mavericks on March 21, and the injury ended up costing him two weeks of play as the Pistons battled for postseason position. The focus ...
