Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham is introduced during home opener
Cade Cunningham is introduced to the LCA crowd for the 2025-26 NBA season as the Pistons play their home opener against the Boston Celtics.
It was a successful homecoming for the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.
After opening the season with two road games, they returned home and defeated the Boston Celtics at Little Caesars Arena, 119-113, to improve to 2-1 overall. They trailed by 17 in the first quarter following a poor start, but clamped down defensively and fended off a late Celtics run in the fourth quarter.
The Pistons owned the paint against a Celtics team lacking size and top-end talent following Jayson Tatum’s potentially season-ending right Achilles injury suffered during the playoffs. Cade Cunningham led the way with 25 points and eight assists, and Jalen Duren had a double-double with 24 points, 17 rebounds and two blocks.
Ausar Thompson (21 points, 12 rebounds) and Tobias Harris (18 points, eight rebounds and four assists) also reached double figures. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 41 points.
Thompson makes big plays late
With the Celtics threatening a comeback late in the fourth quarter, Thompson stepped up. He grabbed three key offensive rebound in the final three minutes of the game, and all three of them produced buckets. A putback dunk by Thompson with 2:58 remaining gave the Pistons a five-point cushion, and he tipped in a missed layup attempt by Cunningham during their next possession to extend the lead to 113-106.
With 1:46 to play, Thompson grabbed his third offensive board and quickly assisted a layup by Harris, pushing the lead to seven once again. The third-year forward had his best all-around game of the season so far and has stepped up offensively, topping the 19 points he scored on Friday against the Rockets.
Second unit sparks early comeback
For the second time in three games, the Pistons’ starters came out flat. The Celtics built an early 14-2 lead before Cunningham finally knocked down their second field goal, a 3-pointer. The deficit grew to 17, 31-14, with 2:35 remaining in the opening period before the bench changed the energy of the game.Â
J.B. Bickerstaff closed the first quarter with Thompson, Javonte Green, Chaz Lanier, Ron Holland and Isaiah Stewart. Green sparked a 10-2 run with a 3-pointer and layup, and Thompson drew the loudest roar of the night up to that point when he beat two Celtics defenders to a loose ball. A 3 from Stewart, followed by a pair of free throws from Thompson, allowed the Pistons to cut it to single digits before the quarter ended.Â
The first unit kept the momentum going in the second period. Duren made two free throws to extend the run to 24-12 and bring them within five, 43-38. A pull-up 3-pointer from Cunningham tied the game at 56, and the Pistons took their first lead of the night before halftime, 59-58, with 43.3 on the clock after a 3 from Duncan Robinson.Â
Pistons clamp down defensively, again
Despite all of the fouls and general chaos of Friday’s 115-111 road win over the Houston Rockets, the Pistons sustained a strong defensive effort by holding them to 38.6% overall shooting.Â
They got off to a poor defensive start on Sunday, but recovered and clamped the Celtics down. Boston was held to 34.6% in the second and 38.9% in the third as the Pistons knocked down shots. They outscored Boston by 22 points, 70-48, through the two periods to flip a deficit into a 13-point lead by the end of the third.Â
Thompson and the Pistons’ bench set the tone. He and Holland (who the Pistons have nicknamed “9-to-5″ in reference to their jersey numbers) both had successful possessions against Brown, including late in the third when a steal by Thompson led to a transition dunk for Holland to push their lead to 94-81 with 33.3 seconds left in the period.
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