Pistons news: Cade Cunningham needs rescued

Cade Cunningham scored over 40 points for the second time in a week, but the Detroit Pistons still walked away with their 27th straight loss.

Detroit came out hot in the first quarter and was flying around making plays on the defensive end. Not so much in the second.

They found their mojo again in the third quarter, which looked similar to the first. Not so much in the fourth.

If only the game were two quarters instead of four.

This has been the story for most of this wretched losing streak, as the Pistons can look like a competent NBA team for short stretches, but always seem to revert to the mean of turning the ball over and missing open shots.

Cade Cunningham was amazing in the second half, but his teammates once again let him down.

Cade Cunningham is a one-man team

During this losing streak, some have speculated that Cade Cunningham is not quite the player we thought he was when he was taken #1. After all, Michael Jordan would never let this happen!

I hope these people were watching the game last night, as Cunningham did everything but sell popcorn to try and drag his team to victory. He scored 41 points overall, 37 of them in a spectacular second half in which he looked every bit the part of the savior the Pistons need him to be.

Unfortunately for Cade (and us), his teammates weren't up to the task. If you take away Cunningham and Bogdanovic, the Pistons shot 36.2 percent as a team and just 28.6 percent from long range.

It takes more than two players to win in the NBA, but right now, that's pretty much what the Pistons have.

The bench was again a huge negative, as Alec Burks inexplicably played 26 minutes for a net rating of -25, costing his team nearly a point a minute. He was getting blown by on defense and couldn't make a shot, not that that stopped Monty Williams from running one of the key plays of the game for him near the end of the game when Cade was unstoppable.

So save all of the "Cade is not HIM" talk when the guy is surrounded by the worst roster in the NBA, gets doubled every time he touches the ball, and still manages to put up an efficient 41 points.

Blame the GM who got him no help in the offseason and put an ill-fitting, untalented roster around him. Blame the coach who continues to play favorites and can't seem to find a single combination of players that works.

I felt bad for Cade Cunningham last night, as he did everything he could, had one of the best games of his career, and it still wasn't enough.