{"id":664280,"date":"2026-03-18T05:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/664280\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:00:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:00:41","slug":"pistons-all-star-cade-cunningham-exits-early-due-to-back-spasms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/664280\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons All-Star Cade Cunningham Exits Early Due To Back Spasms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pistons All-Star guard and Most Valuable Player candidate Cade Cunningham<\/a> departed his team\u2019s game against the Wizards on Tuesday during the first quarter due to back spasms, according to Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He asked to sub out with 6:40 remaining in the quarter. Moments earlier, Cunningham collided with Wizards rookie Tre Johnson<\/a> when the two were attempting to corral a loose ball, according to Hunter Patterson of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Afterward, coach J.B. Bickerstaff did not provide an update on Cunningham\u2019s condition or availability for upcoming games. Detroit defeated the lottery-bound Wizards 130-117 behind a career-high 36 points from its other All-Star, Jalen Duren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cunningham is averaging 24.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 5.6 assists for the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons. He needs to play in at least four more games to meet the NBA\u2019s 65-game rule regarding eligiblity for major awards. Detroit has 14 regular-season games remaining.<\/p>\n

The Pistons play the Wizards in Washington, D.C. once again on Thursday before beginning a four-game homestand against Golden State on Friday. If Cunningham needs to miss some time, they will have to rely on Marcus Sasser<\/a> and Daniss Jenkins<\/a> to run the point. They combined for 24 points and 11 assists on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we\u2019ve dealt with a lot this season and had to call on different guys throughout the year,\u201d Bickerstaff said, per Patterson. \u201cTonight was an opportunity to do that, give guys minutes and give guys opportunities to see what they could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier Tuesday, the Pistons announced<\/a> that key reserve Isaiah Stewart<\/a> would miss at least a week of action due to a calf strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is health and habits,\u201d Bickerstaff said of approaching the postseason. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure, this month has been a lot of games for us, it will be a lot of games for us. So, making sure that we\u2019re doing things right on the off days, how we\u2019re recovering and all those things, to get guys opportunities to get on the floor, so that we can continue to work those habits. That\u2019s priority number one for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pistons All-Star guard and Most Valuable Player candidate Cade Cunningham departed his team\u2019s game against the Wizards on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,909,6101,296,188,3860,1016,912,3302,6,297,952],"class_list":["post-664280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-basketball","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-daniss-jenkins","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-isaiah-stewart","tag-jalen-duren","tag-marcus-sasser","tag-nba","tag-pistons","tag-tre-johnson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116248420288503388","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}