This was the Cade Cunningham that had many suggesting he was the best player in the series.
The Cunningham that Knicks players got peppered with questions about in the lead-up to the series. The Cunningham that went missing in Game 1.
Cunningham bounced back from his rough series opener, erupting for 33 points on 11-for-21 shooting from the field along with 12 rebounds in the Knicks’ 100-94 Game 2 loss Monday night at Madison Square Garden that evened the series at one apiece heading to Detroit.
OG Anunoby drew praise for the way he defended Cunningham in Game 1 — Cunningham scored 21 points on rough 8-for-21 shooting from the field with six turnovers in that game, and Anunoby recorded five steals.
But Cunningham routinely beat him off the dribble Monday night, getting into the paint at will — only four of Cunningham’s 21 field goal attempts came from 3-point range.
“They were running stuff to get me off of his body,” Anunoby said. “Setting screens to get me off of him, doing stuff like that. They made some adjustments, we’re gonna make some adjustments ourselves.
“They’re all trying to screen me. They’re moving on the screens, they’re doing that illegal stuff. I’m sure not every one of them is illegal, but they’re all trying to screen me as hard as they can.”
Cunningham, who averaged 9.1 assists per game in the regular season, had just three Monday night.
But he faced little resistance at the rim from Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson and had little need to kick the ball out to his teammates. And one of his assists was a crucial alley-oop lob to Jalen Duren to give the Pistons a four-point lead with just over two minutes left in the game.
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Mikal Bridges was usually the Knicks’ point-of-attack defender on opposing guards during the regular season and had primarily guarded Cunningham in four regular-season games, with rough results.
And now coach Tom Thibodeau has opted for Anunoby’s length and strength to match up with Cunningham through the first two games of the series. It worked in Game 1, but Anunoby’s lack of quickness, particularly on the perimeter, was exposed Monday night.
Knicks center Mitchell Robinson in the second quarter of Game 2. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“He’s a great player,” Thibodeau said of Cunningham. “He got to the line a lot.”
Cunningham did take 12 free throws and made 10 of them, part of a big free-throw discrepancy Thibodeau railed against.
Cunningham helped power the Pistons to their early lead, which they never relinquished — 20 of his 33 points came in the first half. He scored nine straight Pistons points in the second quarter. And he pushed the Pistons in transition, speeding up the game faster than the Knicks usually prefer.
“He’s a great player,” Anunoby said. “Made some tough shots. They were doing some good stuff to get me off of him, off his body and get him downhill.”
