Cade Cunningham refused to let the Detroit Pistons’ season end on Thursday—and he made sure of it in the most emphatic way possible.
Cunningham scored a franchise playoff-record 45 points, including a step-back jumper with 32 seconds remaining, as the top-seeded Pistons beat the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic, 116-109, in Game 5 to keep their season alive. Orlando still leads the series 3-2, and Game 6 is Saturday in Florida—but after Cunningham’s performance, the Pistons go into it with something they did not have before this game: genuine belief.
Cade Cunningham vs. Paolo Banchero
This one came down to two former No. 1 overall picks putting on a show, and in the end, the one who made his free throws walked away with the win.
Cunningham shot 13-for-23 from the field and made a playoff career-high five three-pointers. He went 14-for-14 from the line. A perfect night at the stripe, and it proved to be the difference. Orlando’s Paolo Banchero matched him point for point across most of the game—finishing with 45 as well, also a playoff career high, and converting six three-pointers. But Banchero missed 7 of his 12 free throw attempts, and in a seven-point game, that gap was everything.
Tobias Harris added 23 points for Detroit, All-Star center Jalen Duren snapped out of a slump with 12 points and 9 rebounds, and Duncan Robinson contributed 12. For Orlando, Anthony Black posted a playoff career-high 19 points, Desmond Bane scored 18, and Jalen Suggs added 10.
How the Game Unfolded
Detroit came out with urgency—a clear response to the flat starts that had hurt them in earlier games. The Pistons built a 17-point lead in the second quarter before the Magic clawed back to within six at the break. Orlando pulled within two early in the third, and the game teetered on the edge of a momentum shift. Then Cunningham hit his fifth three-pointer late in the third to push Detroit ahead 89-79, and the Pistons carried that cushion into the fourth.
They extended it to 15 early in the final quarter. The Magic made one more run. Banchero drained his sixth three-pointer with 1:09 remaining to cut the deficit to three—close enough to feel dangerous. Then Cunningham stepped back and buried the jumper that ended the conversation.
Detroit never trailed all night.
The Historical Stakes
Going into Game 6, the Pistons will be leaning on a historical precedent from their own organization. In 2003, Detroit came back from a 3-1 deficit as a No. 1 seed against the eighth-seeded Magic—the first of only seven times any NBA team has completed such a comeback this century. The Denver Nuggets were the last to do it, in 2020, when they became the first franchise in league history to accomplish it twice in a single postseason.
It is a short list. The Pistons know it. They also know Franz Wagner—who was averaging nearly 17 points and 5.5 rebounds across the first four games before leaving Game 4 with a strained right calf—remains sidelined for Orlando.
If Detroit wins Game 6, this series goes back to Detroit for a deciding Game 7. And right now, with Cunningham playing like this, that is not a scenario Orlando should want.
