Furious fourth-quarter comeback falls just short
The Detroit Pistons were a step slow and discombobulated on both ends of the floor for the first 80% of the game. Cade Cunningham decided to take over in the fourth quarter, giving his team a chance to tie it on the last possession, but a Malik Beasley three was off the mark and Detroit fell 107-104. The loss breaks Detroit’s five-game winning streak.
Cunningham had a quiet three quarters, but powered a 22-6 run in a five-minute stretch of the fourth quarter to give the Pistons a chance. Cunningham, who finished with 32 points, scored 12 points and assisted on a Jalen Duren basket in the span.
He even used some heroics at the line trying to will his team to victory. With his team down three and 4.1 seconds to play, Cunningham purposely missed his second free-throw, which nicked the rim, bounced hard off the backboard and went directly back to Cade. Cade swung the ball to Simone Fontecchio who was leaking to the corner for what would have been a wide-open 3-point attempt to tie. Except the officials whistled Cunningham for illegal touching, thinking the ball never hit the rim.
A challenge gave Detroit the ball back, but they now had to do it against a set Warriors defense without the element of surprise. Beasely got a good look, but they couldn’t complete the miracle comeback.
Honestly, the Pistons were lucky to be in the game at all. They trailed by as many as 18 multiple times and rarely looked good on offense or defense playing on the second night of back-to-back. Detroit was a step slow to every loose ball and the Warriors used a patient passing attack to meticulously get to open spots on the floor.
There were a couple of stats emblematic of the game. The Warriors bested the Pistons 21-6 in second-chance points thanks to better focus, effort, and execution by Golden State. The second stat is Steph Curry’s 5-of-21 showing from the field, including 2-of-14 from deep. If Curry has a better than awful shooting night, the Warriors would have been up by 30 instead of 18 in the fourth quarter, and the Pistons never even sniff a comeback.
Beasley (21), Tobias Harris (13), and Ron Holland (11) were the only other Pistons in double figures. The Warriors were led by 19 from Buddy Hield and got seven threes off the bench from Gui Santos and Lindy Waters off the bench.
The Pistons will get a brief rest before hosting the Toronto Raptors on Saturday hoping to start a new winning streak.