Detroit’s All-NBA guard scored a casual 26 points in the Pistons preseason loss
On Thursday night, Detroit Pistons (1-1) star guard Cade Cunningham got down to business immediately in the team’s 117-111 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks (2-0) with a dominant 26-point first half. Right from the jump, Cunningham drove the Pistons’ offense and even delivered nine straight points for Detroit in the first half.
Whether by jump shot or by floater, Cunningham demonstrated a clear control for the game right off the bat. With an efficient 8-for-14 clip from the field, Cunningham took what the Bucks’ defense would give him, and he kept his teammates involved with six first half assists.
In the Pistons’ preseason opener on Monday, a 16-point win, Cunningham dropped 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, so the All-NBA guard has started the exhibition slate in mid-season form. However, right after the third quarter began, Cunningham quickly returned to the locker room as the Bucks’ broadcast team speculated that he was grabbing his lower back during the walk while doing so.
With Cunningham out of the lineup, the Pistons began the third quarter with a 12-point lead, but the Bucks– without Giannis Antetokounmpo all game long– worked their way back into the game and ended the third tied at 89. Detroit’s offense stalled after halftime without Cade to the tune of just 39 second-half points, but the All-Star guard wasn’t expected to play much after halftime in any scenario.
Other than that, Ausar Thompson posted 11 points in the preseason affair, and he carried a lot of the ball handling duties in the first half. The Pistons really look committed to allow a host of players jumpstart the offense from possession to possession, and that will in turn allow Detroit to hop on the fastbreak more consistently.
That much has been evident thus far in the preseason, and so has Detroit’s focus on scoring in the paint. The Pistons notched a significant edge in that department against Memphis on Monday, and Detroit more than doubled the Bucks’ output in the paint tonight.
Rookie Chaz Lanier played a fair amount of minutes with Detroit’s starting unit in the first half, and he knocked down a pair of three-pointers in his second preseason game as well. Lanier has looked quite quick, and his off-ball movement continues to impress in the admittedly small sample size thus far.
Like in the first preseason game, Pistons center Jalen Duren did not play due to a lingering hamstring injury, though it’s believed to be a minor situation. In addition, Tobias Harris, Jaden Ivey and Caris LeVert were all given the night off as well.
The Detroit Pistons will continue the preseason on Tuesday, Oct. 14 with a road matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 pm.
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