Cade Cunningham makes grand statement in return to Detroit Pistons

MIAMI — Detroit Pistons head coach Monty Williams saw flashes during training camp and scrimmages of the talent that made Cade Cunningham the first overall pick in 2021.

“I think he’s getting into form,” Williams said then. "We’ve had a lot of competitive practices where we scrimmage and get after it, and I’m starting to see ‘it.’

“He’s starting to get comfortable with the system, with me and then pretty much a new team, as far as the guys he’s playing with. I think that part will grow. I’ve seen it in practices, we’ve seen it in games. And now he’s going to be playing more consistently. I think we’re going to see the Cade Cunningham that we’re all excited to see grow and lead our team.”

It didn’t take long for Cunningham to prove that, after missing nearly a year of basketball, that "it" is still in him.

SHAWN WINDSOR: Cade Cunningham was gone a long time. He didn't waste time announcing his return.

The Pistons couldn’t have asked for more from Cunningham in his regular-season return from a stress fracture in his left shin that cost him the final 70 games of his sophomore season. In their season opener against the Miami Heat on Wednesday, he finished with 30 points and nine assists — clearly the best player on the floor.

Cunningham was efficient, knocking down 13 of his 27 attempts overall and four of nine 3-point tries. And he was electric, orchestrating a game-closing 27-9 run that nearly delivered a win despite a 19-point deficit early in the fourth quarter.

The comeback attempt fell short — Cunningham’s deep 3-point attempt at the final buzzer bounced off of the back of the rim. But despite falling to the Heat, 103-102, the Pistons exited Kesaya Arena more confident in what they can accomplish this season. They locked down defensively and took care of the ball late, overcoming a sloppy first half. Had they committed fewer self-inflicted wounds in the first two quarters, they were confident they would have defeated a contending team fresh off of an NBA Finals appearance.

And in perhaps the most important development for the Pistons’ longterm success, Cunningham asserted himself as a blossoming star. He started strong, entering halftime with 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting. The Heat didn’t have an answer for him as he comfortably got to his spots and hit midrange jumper after midrange jumper.

But the fourth quarter was his best — he scored or assisted the first 12 points of a 14-0 run midway through the period, then brought the Pistons within a point late with steal and alley-oop to Jalen Duren and a pull-up 3-pointer with less than two minutes remaining, positioning them for a game-winning attempt with 2.5 seconds left.

“All glory to God, first and foremost,” Cunningham said at the podium after the game — his first since Nov. 9 of last year. “It’s crazy to be back on the court, back with my brothers competing. I’m just thankful and lucky to be doing what I do. I just kinda carried that with me and just wanted to play hard and stay in the moment and let the game be what it is.”

Cunningham spent most of his offseason rehabbing his shin injury in Miami. And he believes it was fate that his return to the NBA — to the Pistons — took place in a city that he recently called home.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we came back here for the first game,” Cunningham said. “It was meant to be for me, myself. I couldn’t be more proud of the team that I’m a part of, and just excited about the teammates that I have. I’m lucky to be around them every day. I don’t really think about my leg every day. I just think about what can I do for my team, and how can I help us.”

It was also in front of a coach that saw firsthand how good the post-injury version of Cunningham can be. Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra was an assistant for Team USA this past summer. He witnessed up close Cunningham’s dominant performance in Vegas scrimmaging against U.S. stars ahead of the World Cup. For Spoelstra, what Cunningham did Wednesday wasn’t surprising.

“That first scrimmage, he was really good,” Spoelstra said pregame. “He made everybody watch, you remember that. But that’s what you expect when you’re a No. 1 draft pick. You have size, you have the full skill set, the vision, the handle, shooting. The way he plays the game offensively, it belies the years of his experience.”

The Pistons had more than a dozen turnovers in the first half, off of which the Heat scored 21 points. That, along with a big disparity in free throw attempts (16-7 in the first half) and a poor second quarter (in which the Heat outscored them by 14 points), nearly doomed them early. Detroit inexplicably led after the opening period, 29-26, despite turning the ball over nine times. But poor defensive execution and ball control — along with a tough whistle from the officials — led to them trailing by 11 at halftime.

That deficit expanded to 19 with 9:23 remaining in the game, after the Heat scored three consecutive baskets off two Pistons turnovers and a missed shot that set up a dunk for Thomas Bryant on the other end.

Cunningham checked in with 10:22 to play, and sparked Detroit’s comeback with a lob to Duren. But it was also a team effort. Miami shot just 8-for-22 in the fourth due to the Pistons locking down defensively and taking better care of the ball. The two turnovers early in the period were Detroit’s only miscues of the second half.

The Pistons also got big contributions from Duren (17 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks and four assists) and Isaiah Stewart (who had 14 points and 14 rebounds, knocked down two 3-pointers and assisted Cunningham’s pull-up 3-pointer in transition that cut Miami’s lead to one).

“I’ve said it for the past couple of weeks we have a resilient group of guys that believe in what we’re doing, that believe in each other,” Williams said. “Stewy, Cade, (Jalen Duren), I mean everybody was like, ‘Don’t hang your heads’ when we got down. I think that stuff is really important when you’re trying to overcome.

“I thought as the second half progressed, we got stop after stop after stop, our guys stopped worrying about things we couldn’t control. We focused on the game. The resiliency of our group was evident tonight, and I told them we can’t take what we did for granted.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons' Cade Cunningham makes grand statement in return