Pistons Cade Cunningham awakens to carve up Knicks, OG Anunoby for monster Game 2
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.Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take for insider texts about the series.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...