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Tim Bontemps
PHILADELPHIA — At halftime of Sunday night’s game at Xfinity Mobile Arena, it looked like the Detroit Pistons would see their five-game winning streak come to a screeching halt.
The hometown Philadelphia 76ers were moving the basketball, hitting shots and playing with a verve that the Pistons — despite being the rested team, having not played the night before, as Philadelphia did — didn’t seem capable of matching.
But then the second half started. And behind a spectacular performance from Cade Cunningham — who scored 24 of his 26 points after the break, including a spectacular dunk over former Piston Andre Drummond in the game’s closing minutes — Detroit secured a 111-108 victory, giving the franchise its best start to a season in a generation.
«It’s not hard to believe,» Cunningham said when asked whether he was surprised by Detroit’s 8-2 start only two years after its 14-68 season. «Even then, I couldn’t believe that we were in such a low.
«So to be here now, I feel like we’re where we’re supposed to be. We got a lot of guys that have always been big-time players, have always found ways to win at every level, and the NBA is tough. So we got here and we had to figure it out together. We were young, but now we’re getting our foot in and we’re figuring it out.»
It’s a lot easier to figure things out, however, when your team is led by a player like Cunningham, who has backed up last season’s breakout performance — when he made his first All-Star and All-NBA appearances of his career, and led Detroit to the playoffs — by leading the league in assists and putting up one impressive performance after another in the early going.
Cunningham had entered Sunday’s game having scored at least 30 points in three consecutive games, and in four of the five wins during Detroit’s winning streak. But after playing well below his standards in that first half — not only scoring two points, but going just 1-for-9 from the field — he completely flipped things around, allowing Detroit to post its best record through 10 games since starting the 2005-06 season with a 9-1 record.
Cunningham’s 17 points in the third quarter immediately pulled Detroit back into a game it trailed by as many as 13 in, and that was before his spectacular dunk with just under two minutes to go over Drummond helped keep Detroit ahead amid a late push by Tyrese Maxey (32 points, 7 assists) and the 76ers (6-4).
«Man, he could get one of those every game,» said Jalen Duren, who had 21 points and 16 rebounds, with a smile. «I don’t know why he doesn’t. But I love it. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of that. His game speaks for itself.
«I continue to say [he’s the] best guard in the NBA, so he going to make plays like that.»
Duren has also taken a massive step forward this season, with Sunday’s game marking the sixth time already this season he’s eclipsed 20 points, and his season average of 19.4 points per game dwarfs the 11.8 he posted last season, or the 13.8 from the season before.
But it’s at the other end where he’s played a significant part in Detroit having the league’s third-ranked defense through 10 games, and he contributed another two steals and two blocks Sunday while continuing to be one of the league’s most imposing rebounders.
«He’s been dominant,» Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. «The way he helps us protect the rim, the job he does on the boards, the threat that he is in the pick and roll and in the pocket … he’s a guy that can connect our group, too. He’s another guy who can facilitate and playmake, and then he’s an elite communicator, which has been a huge growth for him defensively. He’s talking to guys, always in the right spot, so I thought he was great again tonight.»
Cunningham and Duren also share the connection of having lived through that dismal 14-68 season two years ago, when it seemed like the Pistons were miles away from being relevant in the Eastern Conference — let alone the league. But as the league wakes up Monday morning, it will be Detroit looking down at the rest of the conference, and only looking up at one team — the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder — in the standings.
«I think sky’s the limit,» Duren said, when asked about his expectations for Detroit moving forward this season. «I think we keep following JB, keep working hard, keep defending, keep playing together … I think sky’s the limit at that point.»
For his part, Cunningham said that even when things were at their lowest ebb two seasons ago, and success like this felt as far away as it possibly could, that his belief in himself kept him pushing forward — and it is that same belief that doesn’t allow him to be satisfied with a good couple of weeks to begin this season.
«Yeah, I mean, more than anything, my faith in myself, knowing that I was going to be successful in the NBA, knowing that I was going to do everything it took to be successful,» he said. «And I got lucky and fell into a franchise in the city that has the same mentality that I felt like it took for me to take the next step.
«So, it is been a hell of a ride, man. It’s been a lot of ups and downs. It’s still early though … I’m not above myself because we’re eight and two. I think this [success] is something that we all want, but we want something bigger than this. So we just want to keep our heads down and keep working.»
