The Detroit Pistons don’t believe they’ve accomplished anything so far.
The same team that’s had a stranglehold on the top spot in the Eastern Conference since early November, had two players and their entire coaching staff selected to the All-Star game and have, arguably, the most feared defense in the NBA holds little reverence for the first 54 games of the season.
That’s by design.
Under coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons’ (41-13) process-oriented style has them looking like a top competitor in the league and ratcheting up the wins regardless of who is on the court on any given night.
No matter how special a performance feels for those watching, it’s just another night of work for the Pistons.
That’s why completing a 3-0 sweep of the New York Knicks in the regular season that concluded with a 42-point, 13-assist showing from Cade Cunningham Thursday night isn’t suddenly changing the attitude of the team.
Beating a Knicks team that sent Detroit home from the playoffs by a total of 84 points across three games isn’t payback, it’s just basketball.
“This isn’t an ‘us vs. the Knicks’ thing where we show up and are different,” Bickerstaff said postgame. “Our guys have done a great job all year of approaching each game the same way...with the same temperament, the same edge. Defended the same, moved the same. This is just basketball for us.”
The Pistons were without their top two bigs in Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart against the Knicks as they both served the second game of their respective suspensions for the fight that broke out against the Charlotte Hornets earlier this month.
It was still the team’s unmatched defensive play style that paved the way for the win as they held New York to 23% shooting from three-point range, their third-worst mark of the season.
Even being down some key contributors and playing a more tightly-contested matchup at Madison Square Garden, the Pistons still pulled well ahead early in the fourth quarter, cruising to a win.
Cunningham obviously played a critical role in pushing the Pistons on both ends, serving as the primary scorer and provider on offense, while shooting an incredibly efficient 17-of-34 from the field.
He was a menace from early on, posting 14 points in the first quarter before looking undeniable in the second half as he spotted up for contested shots that still fell and muscled through contact for highlight spots at the rim.
“I’ve seen a lot of great performances, but I think for the big matchups, he always gets up and is ready to go,” veteran forward Tobias Harris said. “We can see it in his demeanor early on in the game, and he was great for us; he was great all night. That’s up there for sure.”
As much as Cunningham and the Pistons aren’t ones for reading too far into individual matchups, getting to showcase in a national matchup on the road in one of the most historic arenas in basketball felt like the kind of eye-catching moment that gets remembered.
The race for MVP still seems wide open as frontrunners Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic have dealt or are dealing with injuries. And in a night where the rest of the Pistons’ offensive outputs were more subdued, it was truly Cunningham pulling the strings all night.
It’s fair to call the performance what it was — a statement.
That might not fly with Bickerstaff, who is more focused on how critical Cunningham is on a nightly basis, but it’s the type of game that has national analysts and even some well-known Knicks fans showing respect.
“We’ve played I don’t know how many games now, but (Cunningham’s) been that all year long. I don’t think you pick an MVP based off just one game or one statement. He’s been this way for the entire season,” Bickerstaff said. “This is just another night of him being the same and doing the same that he’s done night in and night out for us.”
The Pistons’ mindset not to dwell on any result will do them well as the next week won’t be kind. After facing the Chicago Bulls on Saturday, they return home to face the San Antonio Spurs (39-16), Oklahoma City Thunder (42-14) and Cleveland Cavaliers (35-21) in a five-day stretch.
Any one of those games could be another statement sent to the NBA as they face three of the hottest teams in the league.
Cunningham putting on a show against the Thunder — even without Gilgeous-Alexander – would surely give an MVP campaign even more credence.
But he’s not chasing those types of performances. The only statement Cunningham wants to send every game is that the Pistons are going to compete with anyone.
“We all made a statement,” Cunningham told reporters postgame. “We want to impose ourselves and our identity every night...that’s the statement we want to make every night.”