Cade Cunningham, Pistons can’t escape growing pains that come with NBA playoffs

DETROIT — Cade Cunningham’s trajectory seems clear. He’s headed to elite levels, where NBA superstars roam.

That journey, which has already seen the top pick of the 2021 draft endure a major injury and historic losing, earn an All-Star bid and lift the Detroit Pistons back to the playoffs, led him to the cusp of his defining moment. With 10.5 seconds remaining in Sunday’s game against New York — with Knicks forward OG Anunoby in front of him, all of Detroit behind him and all of New York against him — Cunningham sought out that moment.

He took one dribble to his right. When Anunoby lunged to cut him off, Cunningham crossed between his legs to the left. The only thing in front of Cunningham was space and opportunity, the chance to make proud the prestigious Pistons alum in attendance and show Isiah Thomas, Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace that Detroit basketball was back.

Cunningham rose up at the left elbow — an area on the court where he’s shot 46.7 percent during the postseason — for a clean look at a midrange jumper, the kind we’ve come to expect him to make.

This one was wide left, bouncing off the side of the rim, off the backboard and away from glory.

“Cade got his shot,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “He got to his spot, and he got to his shot. Had the shot that he liked and that we all like. I trust Cade to take that shot 100 times in a row.”

The scramble for the loose ball eventually landed in the hands of Tim Hardaway Jr. in the left corner. Knicks forward Josh Hart contested Hardaway’s desperation 3, bumping the Pistons guard on his right side in the process. No foul was called, but the crew chief for the game, David Guthrie, later acknowledged that a foul occurred.

Hardaway, who shot 85.5 percent at the free-throw line during the regular season, should’ve had three chances to put Detroit up by one point. But the buzzer sounded, and New York won. The intensity that filled Little Caesars Arena suddenly became disbelief. The Pistons are now on the brink of elimination and down 3-1 in this Eastern Conference first-round series after a 94-93 defeat.

If a bright side exists to this heartbreak, it’s with Cunningham and how he tends to respond to a letdown. Times like these, failures like missing the biggest shot of the season, are usually part of a superstar’s road to greatness.

Cunningham has now played four playoff games and already has experienced the worst outcome of taking a big shot with the game on the line. He’s felt the tension of an arena holding its breath with anticipation, and the angst of the fans’ gasp when he came up short. Whenever the next opportunity comes for Cunningham to take a possible game winner, there won’t be a fear of the unknown.

Between the 21-0 run that resulted in a Game 1 loss and back-to-back gut-wrenching losses at home by a total of three points, Cunningham is being welcomed to the rigors of postseason basketball and the burden carried by franchise cornerstones. With Detroit’s season hanging in the balance, Cunningham now wades into his first win-or-go-home game Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

These are the lessons needed in the making of a champion. This is the adversity that reveals character.

“I feel like I’ve learned as much within this series as I have all season,” Cunningham said Sunday as he leaned back in his chair in front of several reporters and cameras. “There’s a lot to take away from it. Not everything I can share with y’all, but I think it’s great.”

Cunningham’s appreciation wasn’t for his first playoff triple-double — 25 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks — joining Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson (1986) as the only players with a 25-point triple-double and four blocks in a playoff game. Nor was it because he joined Thomas as the only Piston to earn a playoff triple-double.

Cunningham was all in on the growth happening. He wanted to be the one to take the shot at the end of the game, make or miss. The same way he wanted to address the media time and time again after losing 28 consecutive games.

Cunningham was responsible for 12 of Detroit’s 22 fourth-quarter points. After big shots by both teams, Cunningham got his final chance thanks to the Pistons’ defense. A late Jalen Brunson rushed runner missed long, and Cunningham got the rebound. After an intentional foul by the Knicks, the Pistons inbounded the ball with 11 seconds left but couldn’t add more points to their tally.

For the final question of his postgame availability, Cunningham was asked which part of the game was most “disheartening.”

“I’m not disheartened,” Cunningham said. “I’m cool, I’m ready to get to the next game. … When you want to win, there’s disappointment every time we lose.”

Game 5 and the fans at Madison Square Garden will likely present an environment more raucous than one Cunningham is accustomed to. The way he’s been producing — 25.8 points and nine assists per game in the series — he can expect a focused defensive effort from New York to stop him.

“Cade Cunningham is a great player,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “You need your whole team tied together on that. You’ve got to try to make him work and challenge his shots. You’re going to have to fight through a million screens, and that’s part of it.”

Each of Cunningham’s 11 field goals Sunday came in the paint. He was 0-of-3 from distance and is shooting below his regular-season average from long range in the series.

The more pressure Cunningham, with his 6-foot-6 frame, puts on New York’s interior defense, the better. Regardless of the foul calls or lack thereof, Cunningham must continue bombarding the Knicks at the rim.

“I mean, he’s been playing great,” Brunson said of Cunningham. “The effect he has on his teammates, the way they have his back. They follow their leader, and that kid, he’s been doing an incredible job all year. So I respect him for that.”

Bickerstaff said he recognizes the value of these moments for Cunningham and the group as a whole. Bickerstaff has frequently referenced the necessary steps the Pistons need to take to be the team they one day want to become.

“We are learning our way through every challenge that’s in front of us,” Bickerstaff said. “I think our guys have done a great job of learning from one moment to the next. Obviously, there are some things that I can help our guys with more down the stretch, and I can be better.

“And I will be. … It’s my responsibility to help these guys because they want to learn, and they want to get better. And that’s what I’m here for.”

Tuesday will bring the biggest stage for these Pistons. The team, known for its grit and willingness to fight, will have a battle on its hands to save its season. It will be the biggest game for many of the players’ young careers. It will undoubtedly be the biggest game of Cunningham’s young career. And Game 5 will offer him, as well as this Pistons group, the chance to show they aren’t just happy to be in the postseason.

“I’m just looking forward,” Cunningham said. “I’m hungry to get to the next game.”

(Photo of Karl-Anthony Towns and Cade Cunningham: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)

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