Cade Cunningham, Pistons surge past Magic

Cade Cunningham had 29 points and 11 assists as the visiting Detroit Pistons defeated the Orlando Magic 106-92 on Sunday.

Cunningham also had six rebounds for the league-leading Pistons, who overcame early shooting issues to outscore the Magic 31-18 and 25-17 over the last two quarters.

For Detroit, Tobias Harris had 23 points, Jalen Duren had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Osur Thompson had 9 points, 11 boards and 3 blocks.

Paolo Banchero had 24 points and 11 assists for Orlando, Tristan da Silva had 19 points and Desmond Bane had 17 points and seven assists.

Rebounds and turnovers were early problems for the Magic, and although the hosts had 11 fewer shot attempts, they led 26-23 after the first quarter thanks to Detroit’s 9-of-28 shooting, including 0-of-10 from deep.

Orlando’s lead grew to nine points as the Pistons missed their first 15 3-point attempts.

Cunningham had 15 points and five assists in the first half for Detroit, while Banchero had 17 points in the main break, including 12 of 14 free throw attempts, as the Magic reeled within 57-50.

The Pistons stepped up their defensive pressure and found their shooting raiders to take their first lead of the night when Harris nailed a 3-pointer for a 67-65 lead with 6:44 left in the third frame.

Cunningham had 10 points in the period, Harris had nine and Orlando scored seven of his 21 points to take a 14-9 win.

Despite da Silva draining his third 3 in the dying stages, Detroit held the advantage for 12 minutes and went into the fourth with an 81-75 lead.

Bane knocked down a trey early in the final period to tie the score at 83, and the Pistons used a 14-2 burst to pull within 97-85.

A pair of Banchero buckets, including a dunk, cut Detroit’s buffer to 101-92 with 1:17 left before Thompson scored the final five points of the contest.

–Field level media