DETROIT — Late Wednesday night, the atmosphere inside Little Caesars Arena felt eerily familiar, as the Detroit Pistons — still haunted by Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young’s game-winner roughly 48 hours prior — watched a similar late-game situation unfold.
This time, the Pistons watched Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland break their hearts.
After Pistons guard Cade Cunningham tied the game with clutch free throws, Garland inbounded the ball, got it back from Georges Niang, dribbled past midcourt and sank a logo 3, lifting Cavaliers to a 118-115 win — all in five seconds. As his teammates swarmed him, Garland posed with his arms crossed as if hitting near 40-footers in visiting arenas was a daily occurrence.
For a moment, it appeared the Pistons could have pulled out a come-from-behind win. Cunningham was fouled on back-to-back 3-point attempts, knocking down all six free throws and tying the game at 115 after the Pistons rallied from a 112-102 deficit with less than a minute remaining in the game.
Garland, however, iced the game and silenced Little Caesars Arena. The Cavs’ All-Star finished with 25 points on 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range and five assists. Cleveland also leaned on another All-Star, Evan Mobley, who dropped a team-high 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out seven assists and blocked four shots.
“It definitely hurts because we worked our way to come all the way back just to lose like that,” said Ausar Thompson, who had 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. “It hurts, and we just have to learn from it.”
The chaos of the final minute began with a flagrant-2 foul called on Cavs big man Jarrett Allen.
Thompson chased Garland around an Allen screen, and it looked as though Allen assumed Thompson intentionally hit him in the back of his head. On replay, it appeared Thompson had been bumped off course by Allen’s screen and if there was any contact between his hand and Allen’s head, it appeared inadvertent. Allen then set a screen that knocked Thompson on his back. Malik Beasley was the first to rush to Thompson’s defense before Jalen Duren, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Cunningham made it over to Allen as officials and team security got between players.
It resulted in Allen being ejected with 56 seconds left in regulation. Beasley and Thompson both received technical fouls. By the time the technical free-throws were made, the Pistons faced a 112-104 deficit.
JARRETT ALLEN JUST FLATTENED AUSAR THOMPSON WITH THIS SCREEN & WAS EJECTED! 😳 pic.twitter.com/YV6f99qK3T
— Courtside Buzz (@CourtsideBuzzX) February 6, 2025
Cunningham — who finished with 38 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals — scored nine points in 17 seconds. He first made a 3 at the top of the key, then was fouled by Niang in the act of shooting a triple, where he connected on all three free-throw attempts to cut Cleveland’s lead to one. Following made free throws by Garland, Cunningham was fouled once again on a 3-pointer and made all three attempts with five seconds left to play.
Wednesday’s painful loss made for the seventh Pistons loss this season by five points or fewer, including back-to-back losses by three points or fewer. The Pistons (25-26) are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference and own a 5-12 record against the six teams ahead of them in the standings. The Pistons already have lost their season series to Cleveland, the Boston Celtics and the Indiana Pacers.
These are the games Detroit must find a way to win if it hopes to be in playoff contention. Cleveland entered Wednesday with the best record in the East but also was without its leading scorer and All-Star starter in Donovan Mitchell. The Cavs, additionally, were on the second night of a back-to-back after losing to the Celtics at TD Garden on Tuesday.
The Pistons are 2-2 on their current homestand and have two more to play. Their final four games before the All-Star break all are against teams with losing records. Detroit can’t afford any more performances in which it allows an opposing team to post 48.2/42.1/83.3 shooting splits, especially not on its home court.
Detroit has 31 regular-season games left, and of those, only six come against teams currently above them in conference standings. As Thompson said, each contest will present an opportunity for the Pistons to apply what they’ve learned from their losses. It’s also an opportunity to prove they are capable of competing with some of the best teams in the association.
“We have to figure out how to pull these games out,” Cunningham said. “With Mitchell out, it was a little bit of a different game plan for us. We’ve got to adjust on the fly, be ready and execute.”
Detroit was staring down a nine-point deficit at the break after allowing 65 first-half points to Cleveland. Surrendering a ton of points has become another recurring theme for the Pistons. They’re notorious for getting off to slow starts in the first half this season, ranking 24th in the NBA in first-half points allowed per game.
But for Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who coached Mitchell, Garland and the majority of this Cavaliers roster last season, these are games he still finds pride in.
“Just the fight in our guys,” Bickerstaff said postgame. “We were down most of the night, down big even late and there was no quit with a minute to go. Very easily could’ve just thrown in the towel, and we figured out a way to get back in it. I give our guys a ton of credit. Proud of their effort, where they continued to scrap.
“Defensively in the second half, I thought we were really good, so we gave ourselves a chance.”
(Photo of Cade Cunningham: Mike Mulholland / Getty Images)
