Cade Cunningham did not try to soften the blow after the Detroit Pistons let Game 5 slip away against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena. With Detroit leading by nine late in regulation, the final minutes turned into a painful lesson in playoff execution, and Cunningham’s words made that clear.
“They played better than us. They executed. They scored more points than us,” Cunningham said after the Pistons’ 117-113 overtime loss. The defeat gave Cleveland a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series and pushed Detroit to the edge of elimination.
The Pistons had control for most of the night, building a 15-point first-half lead and still holding a 103-94 advantage with a little more than two minutes left in regulation. But Cleveland closed on a 13-0 run, tied the game on Evan Mobley’s free throws with 45.2 seconds left, and then took over in overtime behind James Harden and Donovan Mitchell.
Cunningham, who finished with 39 points and nine assists, said the collapse stung because Detroit had done enough to put itself in position to win. “Yeah, it definitely stings,” he said. “Home court. I thought we did a lot of good things tonight to put us in position to win. Just didn’t close the game, didn’t play at the level that it takes to win this game. So stings for sure.”
One of the biggest sequences came when Cleveland began trapping Cunningham and forcing the ball out of his hands. He said the Pistons have to be sharper in those moments and punish the defense with cleaner decisions.
“It’s about exploiting whatever they’re doing that’s giving us advantages,” Cunningham said. “Ball’s in my hand, I got to do a good job of getting the ball to the open man and allowing the rest of the team to play four on three situations and stuff.”
Detroit also left the game feeling aggrieved by a late no-call when Jarrett Allen and Ausar Thompson got tangled under the basket just before the buzzer. Cunningham did not hide his view of the play.
“We all saw the play,” he said. “I think it’s pretty clear it was a foul. He has the ball in his possession. He’s running forward. He gets tripped up. That’s a foul.”
Even with the disappointment, Cunningham pointed to the Pistons’ ability to respond from tough spots earlier this season and said the group still believes it can force a Game 7. Detroit has been strong at home all year, but now must win in Cleveland on Friday to stay alive.
“We’ve had our back against the wall before,” Cunningham said. “At the end of the day, if we can’t win a game on the road, how far are we really going to get in the playoffs? How far are we going to get in this league? So we got to go win a game on the road, and that’s what we’re going to go do.”
Cunningham also took responsibility for a key turnover in overtime, one of several details that swung the game. “I made a lot of mistakes tonight,” he said. “The team we made some mistakes. It’s part of the game.”
