Early in the first quarter against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night, Detroit Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham dove for a loose ball and landed squarely on his hip. During the sequence, it looked like Cunningham may have taken an inadvertent knee to the back, and the All-Star played on for a bit longer before he was substituted after just five minutes. 

Cunningham left the game and headed to the locker room from that point and did not return due to back spasms, so the Pistons shifted their gameplan to a more interior-centric attack that prominently features Jalen Duren. 

As the focal point of the Detroit offense, Duren set a new career-high with 36 points on an efficient 13-for-17 shooting performance, and the first-time All-Star also snagged 12 rebounds to record his 35th double-double of the season. From a scoring standpoint, the Pistons also moved to 20-5 in the 2025-26 campaign when Duren scores at least 20 points, so the big man was a major piece to the Pistons’ 130-117 victory over the Wizards. 

Like usual, Duren was effective in lob scenarios and rattled the rim on numerous occasions against Washington, but the Memphis product was equally effective from the charity stripe with a 10-for-11 effort from the free throw line as well. The Pistons were always going to need a strong showing from Duren tonight with Isaiah Stewart injured (left calf strain) and unavailable, but the fourth-year center more than carried his own weight in the double-digit victory. 

Apart from JD’s massive performance, the Pistons benefited from a few key contributions off the bench. Once Cunningham exited the contest, Detroit went with Marcus Sasser to run the show for much of the first half. Sasser hit a trio of triples in his extended playing time with four assists as well, but it was Daniss Jenkins who provided the steadying influence that Detroit needed to stretch their modest first half lead into a comfortable advantage during the third and fourth quarters. 

Jenkins finished the night with 15 points (4-for-9 FGs, 2-for-3 from long-range) and seven assists, which was the high-water mark for the Pistons in terms of helpers. Tobias Harris, however, was not far off in that category with a half dozen assists of his own as multiple Pistons picked up the playmaking slack with Cunningham out of the lineup. 

Caris LeVert, Ron Holland and Paul Reed all chipped in with double-digit contributions off the bench, and the Pistons shot over 40% from three-point range as a whole to pick up a victory in their first of two straight games against the Washington Wizards. 

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