Hunter Patterson

After the Pistons’ 14-win season, Cade Cunningham had FOMO watching the playoffs. He texted someone he knew would understand. I spoke with them both for an exclusive on how that text sparked Detroit’s two-year turnaround: nytimes.com/athletic/71963…

Jalen Duren has officially come alive.

That’s five on Ausar and in comes Tobias. That’s tough for the Pistons.

Pistons are up to 43 bench points. Just a hell of an effort. Detroit fans here are turning up.

Donovan’s triple brought him down to a +21.

Sasser is a game-high +24 after back-to-back buckets.

Pistons are starting the fourth with a Cade-Sasser-Duncan-LeVert-Duren lineup.

Pistons just went on a 10-2 run to close the quarter and take an 84-70 lead into the fourth. Good stuff from Duncan, BBall and Sasser to help extend the lead for Detroit.

Duren is back from the locker room once again.

That’s gotta be the longest I’ve seen the ball spin around the rim before going in.

And he’s heading right back to the locker room.

Duren just walked back to the bench.

Duren went down hard on that last drive and barely made it back to the bench. He’s going straight back to the locker room now.

That’s a 14-4 Pistons run to start the third. Even when Duren hasn’t finished at the rim tonight, the pressure he’s put on the Cavs’ defense has generally lead to good things happening.

JD has a block and a steal already in the third. He’s hooping like he’s not ready to go home.

Pistons up 54-51 at the half. They got off to a good start in the second but turnovers started catching up with them. Detroit has 13 assists to 11 TOs thus far.

JD is starting to look like himself again. Just took Allen to the cup off the dribble. He’s been much more aggressive offensively tonight.

Cade is locked all the way in. He’s up to 16 on 4/6 from distance and he’s got five assists. He’s seeking out 3s and knocking them down.

Flagrant 1 on Ausar. Zarba says there was contact to Merrill’s neck. Fans here were chanting “throw him out” during the review.

Sasser only has 2 points but he’s a +17 in 5mins.

Pistons start the second on an 11-2 run to take a 38-27 lead. They already have 14 points off turnovers and 10 second-chance points.