With their matching 45-point games, Cade Cunningham and Paolo Banchero stirred echoes of some memorable efforts in playoff history.
Cade Cunningham and Paolo Banchero did more than just scare the daylights out of each other’s team with their scoring duel Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
With their matching 45-point performances in the Pistons’ 116-109 victory in Game 5, they stirred echoes of some of the most memorable individual shootouts in NBA playoff history.
Two in particular came to mind as Cunningham and Banchero went back and forth, thwarting the defense, putting up numbers. The gold standard was Larry Bird vs. Dominique Wilkins in Game 7 of the 1988 Eastern Conference finals. That one came down to the final quarter, when Bird scored 20 of his 34 points and Wilkins had 16 of his 47. For minutes on end, it was as if there was no one else on the court, Boston prevailing 118-116.
Then there was Game 4 of the Utah-Denver series in August (!) 2020 in the Orlando “bubble” postseason. The Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell (51) and the Nuggets’ Jamal Murray (50) became the first opponents to score 50 in a playoff game. Utah won 129-127.
Mitchell and Murray still are two of the most potent scorers in the league. Cunningham and Banchero figure to be around for a while, too – just not at the same time for much longer this spring.
Banchero and the Magic, up 3-2 in the best-of-seven, can close out the Pistons in Orlando Friday in Game 6. Cunningham and crew need to extend to Game 7 back in Detroit Sunday to advance.
Here are four takeaways from Game 5, in a series that keeps dialing up the intrigue:
1. Detroit desperation definitely a difference
The Pistons didn’t work hard all season just to be put down by a No. 8 seed, about as ignominious an exit as a 60-22 team can suffer. They came out fast and strong, had Orlando flailing and fouling and got a double-digit lead in the first four minutes.
Climbing on Cunningham’s back, the Pistons led 48-31 early in the second quarter. They never untied the bungee cord that enabled the Magic to close within two points in the third, 71-69, or three in the fourth, 112-109 with a minute to go.
But neither did they let themselves get tied or fall behind. Center Jalen Duren had his best night of a rough series for him, Tobias Harris scored 23 and defensive ace Ausar Thompson was the X-factor with five steals, two blocked shots and 15 rebounds.
Detroit’s focus narrowed to a simple approach: Play hard.
“Just a never-doubt mentality,” Cunningham called it. “To have controlled aggression all night.”
2. Little things loom large for Magic
Might as well stick with the alliteration, right? The Magic turned in a performance that didn’t call for granular analysis. Pick up the stat sheet and the sources of their undoing Wednesday leap off the page.
“Free throws and rebounding,” coach Jamahl Mosley said.
Oh, Mosley stayed at the podium for several more minutes to discuss other elements, but he kept coming back to the fact that his team got outrebounded overall 49-33 and 16-8 in offensive boards.
It happened most wincingly in the game’s clinching moment: Harris missed a 13-foot jumper with 45 seconds left and there was Thompson, grabbing the ball and getting it to Cunningham. Detroit’s point guard got his rhythm and a fadeaway jumper from the right wing, pushing that three-point lead to 114-109 with 31 seconds left.
As well as the Pistons played defensively, they were at their best in (wink) defending the foul line. Orlando missed nine of 19 foul shots in the first half and five of 11 in the second. Banchero shot better when he was being chased and harassed – 17-for-31 overall, 6-for-11 from the arc and just 5-for-12 on the uncontested, clock-stopped 15-foot freebies.
As a group, the Magic missed 14 free throws in a seven-point loss. The math is as easy as it was ugly.
“The margins were what beat us,” Banchero said.
3. A glimpse of duels to come?
Neither Cunningham nor Banchero had much wiggle room. The Detroit playmaker and his teammates were cranky, embarrassed even, to be on the brink of elimination four games into the throat-clearing opening round.
Cunningham played almost 44 minutes, cut down on his costly turnovers – “Just pass the ball to our team instead of theirs,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff had deadpanned – and found the ideal blend of hero ball and facilitating his teammates in the final quarter.
“There’s a handful of them in the league, right?” Bickerstaff said of Cunningham’s leadership. “They’re unique. They’re special. To put the work in, have the talent, even then [to] understand his responsibility and what he means to this team, he wasn’t going to let us go down tonight.”
Not bad for a guy who suffered a collapsed lung in a game six weeks ago.
Banchero, meanwhile, knew he was without his Magic frontcourt partner, Franz Wager. Wagner had been the team’s top player in Game 4, scoring 19 points before straining his right calf. Just as essential, Wagner is Orlando’s best defensive option on Cunningham, with the size and mobility to bother the Pistons leader.
With Wagner on the side in street clothes and a walking boot, Mosley threw the toolbox at Cunningham, mostly lesser-used Jamal Cain and Anthony Black but also Banchero. Banchero scored 18 points in the fourth to keep Orlando’s hope alive.
The battle with Cunningham could set up a series of sequels in the coming years. But Banchero didn’t dwell on that Wednesday.
“In the heat of the moment you’re not really thinking about it,” he said. “I’m sure one day you’ll look back and be like, ‘That was a helluva game.’ But me and him have been going at it since AAU days, so no surprise there.”
4. Focus shifts to Friday
The Pistons will face the same predicament as they did in Game 5. The Magic might feel more pressure, with Game 6 at the Kia Center in possibly their final home game of the spring. Both teams are trying to end long droughts since their last series victory; Orlando hasn’t won one since 2010, Detroit since 2008.
Showing a little more life and earning 48 hours to breathe, the Pistons might have the emotional edge Friday. But Banchero wants the Magic to stay positive, based on the resiliency they showed in the shorthanded circumstances. They’ll be hoping Wagner’s calf improves while buoyed by how close they came anyway.
“We gave ourselves a chance at the end. And we just didn’t go away,” Banchero said. “I don’t think you can be discouraged from this performance as a team. You’ve just got to realize where you let the game go and be better.”
* * *
Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.