I’ve been watching the Detroit Pistons longer than many of you have been alive, and I can say with some confidence that last night’s performance from Cade Cunningham might be the best I’ve ever witnessed from a player in a Pistons uniform.
It was an early regular season game against the Wizards, so doesn't have the same luster as doing it in the playoffs, but as far as complete performances go, you won’t find many better.
Cade Cunningham had a night
Cunningham’s 52 points tied him for 4th all-time for the Pistons, behind just Jerry Stackhouse (57), Kelly Tripucka (56) and Dave Bing (54) and tied with George Yardley.
What makes Cade’s 52 impressive is that he did it on just 25 shots, though he did get to the line 18 times making all but one of them. Stackhouse needed 36 field goal attempts, Bing 38 and Tripucka took one more shot than Cade.
To be completely fair, the 3-point shot has obviously changed the game, and Dave Bing and George Yardley played in eras that didn’t even have a 3-point line.
You can argue about which scoring night was more impressive, but Cade did things that none of the other top scorers did in their monster nights.
Cunningham racked up 11 assists and zero turnovers, which might have been the most impressive stat of the night considering he accounted for such a large portion of the Pistons’ overall offense.
As I’m sure you’ve read by now, Cunningham became the first player (since they started keeping turnover and assist stats) to score over 50 points, have more than 10 assists and not commit a single turnover.
Side note: Shout out to George Yardley, who racked up 20 boards to go along with his 52 points back in the 1950’s which is impressive for a small forward.
Cunningham also added five rebounds last night, and a block and a steal while hitting almost every big shot when the Pistons needed one.
You can always argue which player had the “best” game, and it’s completely subjective. I’m sure you could make a case for some of Grant Hill’s monster triple doubles, Isaiah's "ankle" game, or even a few of the games Blake Griffin had in 2018, but Cunningham’s performance last night was about as close to flawless as you will get.
Five years ago, I wrote that Cunningham would eventually break the Pistons’ scoring record, and he showed last night that those kinds of audacious games are within his grasp.
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