Detroit basketball fans have a new chant. In addition to the "DE-TROIT BASKETBALL" thing—more of a shout, really, but you take my meaning—they now chant "M-V-P" for young Cade Cunningham, who in his fourth NBA season has made The Leap. Cunningham is posting career highs in points, assists, defensive rebounds, blocks, usage, and scoring efficiency, and is the best player for a bona fide playoff team otherwise made up of well-meaning guys, plus Ausar Thompson (hell yeah) and Tobias Harris (gulp). Cunningham isn't really a serious MVP contender—basically no one is in a league that contains both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic—but he's earned this adoration. Anyway, he's got about as good a case as anyone else in his shit-ass conference. Let them chant, I say.
The Pistons beat the Miami Heat Wednesday night, in a contest that was maybe a little bit closer than it should've been. The Heat stink. Shipping off Jimmy Butler may have removed a distraction but it left the roster with just one player, in Bam Adebayo, who is capable of making regular contributions at both ends in a rotation gig. The Pistons maybe aren't exactly a powerhouse, but they're supposed to handle this lousy Heat outfit. "We just couldn't find that momentum to put us ahead," head coach J.B Bickerstaff said after the game. "Every time it seemed like we were making a run, you'd look up and we were down by three." Cunningham mostly had an off night, shooting-wise, the Pistons struggled to produce clean three-pointers, and Erik Spoelstra's lean 7.5-man rotation made headway against Detroit's otherwise respectable bench units. It's just like that sometimes, especially for teams that have only recently arrived at conditions of general competence.
The Pistons needed some shit from their main guy, and they got it. Down a point inside the final minute, Jalen Duren ripped down an offensive rebound and kicked the ball out to Cunningham at the top of the key. Tyler Herro declined to make any effort whatsoever at a closeout, so Cunningham loaded up and buried a clean three-pointer to put the Pistons back in front. Adebayo missed a tightly contested jumper on the subsequent possession, and Cade hauled in the board and brought the ball up the court, with a chance to seal the game. Too much clock-killing led to some miserable offense, but Cunningham managed to pass Harris into a wide-open three from the wing. Harris, in a routine that will give the shakes to every Philadelphia sports fan who reads this blog, failed to act with appropriate urgency on the catch, and the ball was still on his fingertips when the shot clock expired, a really unacceptable outcome for a late possession in a close game. The Heat took advantage of the opportunity and worked a switch for Herro, who pump-faked Duren into the air and then created a shooting foul. Herro's freebies tied the score with five seconds left on the game clock.
The Pistons used a timeout to advance the ball into the front court, and subbed in all their shooters. The Heat assigned their one genuinely reliable defensive player to the job of blanketing Cunningham on the inbound play, which meant Adebayo had to scramble over a screen, chase out to the wing, and then dart back toward the top of the key while staying close enough to a very good primary ball-handler to bother a pull-up jumper. And he did pretty well! But not well enough:
This was not a fancy Pacers-esque beauty of a play. The Pistons wanted Cunningham to have the ball, without a lot of complexity or nuance. "You've just got to get him the ball," said Bickerstaff, chuckling. "You think about an old Doug Collins clip, 'Get him the ball and get out the way.' Get the ball in his hands, occupy the guys around him, and you know that Cade's gonna be able to get a shot off. He's got the size, he's got the skill, you know he's gonna get his look. We told him to go win the game, and he went and got it done."
Work hard if you have to, yes. But if you have the dude for it, trust your dude. Cade Cunningham has seized Dude status. The Pistons are happy to go as he goes.
