The Detroit Pistons won their eighth game of the season in a double-overtime nail-biter against the Wizards. It was a hard-fought battle, and both teams had chances to close it out, but Cade Cunningham proved to be too much for Washington at the end. He played a highly productive, efficient, and mistake-free game on his way to a career-high 52 points.
In fact, it may have been the best game any Pistons player has ever played in the regular season.
Cade Cunningham's performance vs. the Wizards was an all-timer
This was the fourth-most points any Piston has ever scored in a game. Jerry Stackhouse (57), Kelly Tripucka (56), and Dave Bing (54) are the only players to score more than Cade did on Thursday night. But Cunningham's scoring night was the most efficient of them all. With 16/25 from the field, 3/5 from three, and 17/18 from the charity stripe, Cade had a .790 True Shooting.
Among players who scored more than 45 points in a game for the Pistons, Cade had the third-most efficient outing, only behind Saddiq Bey and Malachi Flynn's outlier games towards the end of their respective seasons.
The incredible part of this is that Cade also had 11 assists and zero turnovers. No Piston has ever had a 50-point, 10-assist game before. No Piston has ever had a game where they scored over 42 points without a single turnover.
And the Pistons needed every single one of Cade's points and assists. Some of the greatest offensive performances in franchise history came in losses. Or they came in meaningless games or blowouts. For example, when Stackhouse scored his 57 points in 2001, it was the final two weeks of the season. The Pistons were 28-46, and the Bulls were 12-61. The Pistons won that game by 27 points.
Cunningham was +4 against the Wizards, the exact margin of victory for the Pistons.
According to Basketball Reference's Game Score, a metric created by John Hollinger to give a rough measure of a player's single-game productivity, Cunningham's game ranks the highest with 50.6. The second-highest Game Score belongs to Isiah Thomas' 46-point, 10-rebound, 11-assist showing in a triple-overtime loss against the Spurs in 1983.
What doesn't show up in the box score is Cunningham's defensive production. He was tasked with Alex Sarr for most of the game, a player who has six inches on Cunningham. This highlights Cunningham's defensive versatility and value, which go far beyond the steal and the block he had.
The greatest regular-season game ever played as a Piston may sound like a hyperbole, but a deep dive into some numbers shows that Cade has a strong argument. Cunningham doesn't have to do this every night because of how deep and talented this Pistons team is, but this was a good reminder for anyone who may have been doubting him after a relatively slow start to the season.
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