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Cade Cunningham scored 45 points, leading the Detroit Pistons to victory over the Orlando Magic and keeping their playoff hopes alive. His performance drew comparisons to legendary Pistons players and moments in franchise history.
Heroes hear trumpets. They rise to the call. So here was Cade Cunningham lifting past the ghost of Isiah Thomas and the night he scored 43 points on a bum ankle in the 1988 NBA Finals. And here was Cunningham, shooting past the specter of Dave Bing and his 44 points in the last game of the Detroit Pistonsâ 1968 playoffs.
And finally, here was Cunningham, elevating for his last shot of the night, a through-the-legs-then-spring-like-a-pogo-stick jumper from 15 feet that finally, finally, put a dagger in the relentless Orlando Magic and assured that Detroitâs amazing season would not be attending a premature funeral.
Forty-five points? Forty-four minutes?
Heroes hear trumpets.
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham walks off the court after a play against the Orlando Magic during the second half of Game 5 in the first round of the NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
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âJust wanted to have controlled aggression all night,â a pensive Cunningham said after this was all over, and the Pistons were spared the first-round guillotine with a 116-109 Game 5 victory on Wednesday, April 29. âYeah. Just wanted to make sure they felt me.ââ
Cade Cunningham scored 45 points and played 44 minutes in the game.
Cunningham's 45-point game was reminiscent of Isiah Thomas and Dave Bing's historic performances in Pistons playoff history.
The victory ensured that the Pistons' season would continue, avoiding an early exit from the playoffs.
The Pistons faced the Orlando Magic in Game 5 of the first round of the NBA playoffs on April 29, 2026.

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Oh, they felt him, all right. The way you feel an angry porcupine. The Magic, without the injured Franz Wagner, had no answer for Cunninghamâs long-range 3-point touch, midrange shooting touch, or short-range driving touch. Cunningham shot 56.5% from the floor, banged in five 3-pointers, and hit all 14 of his free throws en route to the biggest scoring total in Pistonsâ playoff history.
But in sports, âwhenâ matters more than âwhat,â and this "when" was critical. It came as Detroit was on the brink of watching itself melt in the mirror. In four straight playoff games â three of them losses â the top-seeded Pistonsâ identity had all but disappeared. Their strengths had weakened. Their weaknesses had magnified. Theyâd sunk from a No. 1 entertaining a No. 8 to an underdog just trying to survive.
This would not do. And Cunningham, who despite being the lead horse in the chariot race all series, was committing way too many turnovers and failing to lift his team the few times it got its head above water.
Then came Wednesday night.
Heroes hear trumpets.
Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff speaks at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff walks up the podium at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff speaks at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff speaks at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
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Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff speaks at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
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Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff speaks at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
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Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff walks up the podium at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
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Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff speaks at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
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Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff speaks at a press conference before Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
âThatâs why heâs special,â coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of his starâs record performance. âThatâs why he is who he is. âŠThereâs a handful of them in the league, right? Theyâre unique.â
Iâll say, considering that barely six weeks ago, Cunningham left the floor in Washington with a collapsed lung. In case you donât have a medical book lying around, thatâs when air leaks into the chest wall and forces your lung to deflate. If it doesnât sound like the kind of thing that makes you say, âNo biggie, Iâll play a grueling NBA playoff game in no time,â well, thatâs because it isn't.
âI almost forgot about [the collapsed lung],â teammate Ausar Thompson admitted after the game. âI almost forgot it happened.â
You canât blame him. Not the way Cunningham played. The word the Pistons superstar used for the feel of Game 5 was âfreer.â But thatâs an understatement. On Wednesday night, Cunningham was like Peter Pan finding his shadow.
With no Wagner to clog his space, he drove the lane then swung passes to open shooters. Or took it breezily to the hole. Or pulled in, stepped back and swished baskets. Or he eased to the 3-point line, lined it up and fired.
All the while, as is his unique talent, Cunningham looked like he was oozing through his own private tunnel, never too fast, but never catchable.
âOnce he gets in that zone,â Isaiah Stewart marveled, ânobody can stop him.â
What made it more impressive is that Cunningham was being matched all night by Orlando superstar Paolo Banchero. They were consecutive No.1 draft picks â in 2021 and 2022, respectively â and thus both dubbed âfuture of the league.â
In Game 5, they lived up to it. Banchero matched Cade with 45 points of his own, 18 of them on eye-blinking 3-pointers. Had he made his seven missed free throws (in 12 tries), he would have had 52 points. The two went back and forth like alternating ax swings at a giant oak, wondering who would make the big thing fall first. The last time opposing players scored 45 or more in the same playoff game was six years ago, when Utah's Donovan Mitchell and Denver's Jamal Murray put up 51 and 50, respectively, in the bubble playoffs in Florida. So Game 5 here in Detroit was, no matter who you were rooting for, a hell of a thing to watch.
âIn the heat of the moment, youâre not really thinking of it,â Banchero said afterwards. âIâm sure one day weâll look back and say that was a hell of a game. But me and him been going at it since AAU games.â
Cunningham, for his part, was more succinct when asked about the superstar throwdown.
âYeah, thatâs whatâs up,â he said.
Heroes hear trumpets.
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) shoots a free throw against Orlando Magic during the first half of Game 5 of First Round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
Now, Detroiters should celebrate Cunninghamâs night, and the win it inspired. But anyone who thinks the tide of this series has turned should never be allowed to navigate a boat.
Remember, the Magic were without Wagner, easily their second-most valuable player in this series and a guy giving the Pistons fits with his defense (often on Cunningham) and his offense, as he drove the lane with impunity and averaged 16.8 points per game.
On top of that, Orlando missed 14 of their 30 free throws Wednesday night. How does that happen? It wasnât because the LCA fans were waving towels and foam sticks.
âFree throws and rebounding,â Orlando coach Jamahl Mosely said, tersely, when asked what was the difference in this game. âFree throws and rebounding.â
Donât expect a repeat of the charity stripe disaster in Game 6 down in Orlando. The Magic take and make more free throws than almost any other team. And if Wagner plays, itâs a different story. Detroit still needs to clean up its turnovers; it had 17 in Game 5, which beats the 20 in Game 4, but is worse than the 16 in Game 3. And it must maintain the rebounding edge it showed in this win, particularly on the offensive glass. That is no small task.
But you canât win two before you win one. The optimistic will point out that Detroit need only gut out a victory in Orlando on Friday night, and itâs all even, the last game is at LCA and the pressure would be on the Magic not to blow a 3-1 lead.
But, as the Night King said in âGame of Thrones,â weâll kill that dragon when it comes flying into ice-spear range. Until then, the Pistons can only hope that guys like Jalen Duren, Duncan Robinson and Daniss Jenkins rediscover the potency that made them so valuable in the regular season.
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham celebrates a play and high-fives forward Ausar Thompson against the Orlando Magic during the first half of Game 5 in the first round of the NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
And that Cunningham knows itâs all right to be selfish in the playoffs. Too many times, he will try and make a pass to his teammates that the Magic anticipate and take away. They are far more scared of his shooting than his assisting.
âThatâs definitely the balance [I] have to find with my job and with the skill set that I have,â Cunningham admitted Wednesday night. âI know I can get us points by me scoring, but also make sure that ⊠Iâm using my play-making ability to get everybody going.
âYouâre right, sometimes in the fourth quarter, the ball needs to be in my hands a little more.â
Iâd say a lot more. Thereâs a reason they yell âM-V-P!â when Cunningham is at the line, just as there is a reason that he seems to be able to move so slowly yet go so fast. The very rich, F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, âare different than you and me.â
So are NBA superstars. And the best of them, when it counts the most, put their teams on their shoulders, tired lungs and all, and soar past franchise ghosts into the history books.
Heroes hear trumpets. Letâs hope Cunningham hears them again in Game 6. And that theyâre not playing âTaps.â
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow @mitchalbom on x.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Cade Cunningham learns lesson vs Magic: It's OK to be selfish