Some nights a star plays well. Other nights he does something the NBA has never seen. Thursday in Washington was the second kind for Cade Cunningham.
The Detroit Pistons guard poured in a career-high 52 points with 11 assists and, remarkably, zero turnovers as Detroit beat the Washington Wizards 144-140 in double overtime. Here is why the stat line is historic, how the rest of the game unfolded and what else happened around the league.
A stat line no one had ever posted
According to NBA.com, Cunningham finished with 52 points, 11 assists, five rebounds, a steal and a block, and he did not commit a single turnover in a game that went 58 minutes.
No player in NBA history had ever scored 50 or more points with 10 or more assists and no turnovers. Cunningham is also the first Pistons player to put up a 50-point, 10-assist game of any kind.
The previous closest examples, NBA.com notes, came from Hall of Famer Larry Bird, who had 46 points and 10 assists without a turnover against Orlando in 1990, and Alex English, who did the same with Denver against Milwaukee in 1987. The league began tracking turnovers in the 1977-78 season.
Cunningham’s previous career high was 46 points, set just over a year ago, also against Washington.
Ausar Thompson’s first triple-double
Cunningham wasn’t the only Piston making personal history. Ausar Thompson recorded the first triple-double of his career with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
The NBA’s official account shared a clip of Thompson joking afterward that his brother “can’t say I don’t have any triple-doubles anymore,” a reference to his twin, Amen Thompson of the Houston Rockets.
Washington’s big three nights
The Wizards lost, but they didn’t go quietly. Three Washington players scored at least 30 points. Trae Young led the way with 37 points and 14 assists, Anthony Davis had 30 points and 15 rebounds, and Alex Sarr added 30 points and nine rebounds.
That was Washington’s first game with three 30-point scorers since November 18, 1969, when Mike Davis, Earl Monroe and Gus Johnson did it for the Baltimore Bullets, according to NBA.com. Young also became the eighth player in league history to reach 200 games with at least 20 points and 10 assists.
The win completed a home-and-home sweep of the Wizards for Detroit, which improved to 8-3. Washington fell to 4-9, according to ESPN’s scoreboard.
Thursday’s other NBA results
It was a four-game night around the league, and all four favorites won. Here are the other final scores, with leading scorers from RealGM:
- 76ers 123, Raptors 112: Philadelphia came back from a big early deficit as Tyrese Maxey scored 27 points with eight assists. RJ Barrett had 31 points and 14 rebounds for Toronto. The Sixers are now 10-3.
- Timberwolves 133, Mavericks 94: Minnesota rolled to a 39-point win, with Bones Hyland scoring 24. Zaccharie Risacher led Dallas with 22. The Wolves improved to 9-3.
- Suns 101, Hornets 96: Devin Booker scored 30 to lead Phoenix past Charlotte, which got 21 from Coby White.
Why Cunningham’s night matters
Fifty-point games happen a few times a season. Fifty-point games with double-digit assists are rare. Doing it without a single turnover, in a double-overtime game where the ball was in his hands for most of the night, is a level of control that speaks to how far Cunningham has come as a lead guard.
For a Pistons team with ambitions of climbing the Eastern Conference standings, having a star who can carry the offense that efficiently is exactly what a contender needs.
The takeaway
Cade Cunningham’s 52-point, zero-turnover masterpiece will be the highlight Pistons fans talk about for years, and it put his name in a record book that no one, not even Larry Bird, had entered before. Add Ausar Thompson’s first triple-double and three Wizards topping 30, and Thursday’s double-overtime thriller had something for everyone.
Image: Ariel Arena by dankeck via Flickr, CC0 1.0
