Coming into the series against the Knicks, the biggest question hanging over the Detroit Pistons is how they would react in the big moment under the much brighter lights of the playoffs.
It’s been a mixed bag for their young players, who have shown their inexperience at times, but who have also made big plays and gotten valuable playoff reps to learn from.
One player who was ready for the moment was Cade Cunningham, who has arguably been the best player in this series, though Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns certainly have their respective cases.
Regardless of whether you think Cade has been the best player in the series overall, he has been the best player at times, like when he absolutely dominated the third quarter of game four.
Cade has averaged 25.8 points, 9 assists and 8.8 rebounds this series while logging one triple-double so far. He’s been good defensively, switching all over the perimeter and blocking shots. He’s had six blocks in the last two games, so Cunningham is getting it done on both ends.
It’s become more obvious that the Pistons need a consistent secondary scoring option, as their offense has struggled in the half court, with the Knicks forcing the ball out of Cade’s hands and daring anyone else to attack the space.
Even with the half-court offense sputtering, the Pistons have been right there in every game and could easily be heading into game five tied at 2-2 and that is mostly because of Cade.
But there is one area he has to clean up for the Pistons to have a chance to get this series back to Detroit.
Cade Cunningham has to limit his turnovers
We’ve been saying this for most of his career, but Cade Cunningham has to limit his turnovers.
To be fair, I think the turnover issue is mostly overblown, as nearly all players who have high usage rates turn the ball over. It’s just part of doing business. Go to the list of top turnover guys this season and you’ll see plenty of great players in the top 10, from James Harden to LeBron to Nikola Jokic.
But the Pistons are riding a razor-thin margin in the playoffs, so each of these turnovers is more important, especially when your team is struggling to score, and Cade has averaged six per game for the series so far.
To their credit, the Knicks have done a great job pressuring guys off the ball to make passes more difficult and they’ve made the Pistons pay nearly every time they tried to throw a pass in traffic.
They are throwing everything at Cade, so you know there are going to be some turnovers, but he has to cut out the unforced ones. He can’t throw the ball away on an inbounds play (a big problem in this series) or try to throw passes across court through multiple defenders.
The Knicks are too long and too good defensively and won’t let you get away with any weak passes.
The Pistons committed 17 turnovers in the last game, 12 of them in the first half, which put them in a hole and forced them to play catch-up the entire game, which isn’t easy to do in the playoffs.
Cunningham had seven of them, which he can’t do again tonight in Madison Square Garden if the Pistons are going to have a chance, as the Knicks will steamroll them at home if they get going.
Cunningham has been brilliant in this series, but he’ll have to play a cleaner game tonight.