For one third quarter on Friday night in Detroit, the Pistons looked like the team that ran away with the Eastern Conference's number one seed. They snapped an 11-game home playoff losing streak dating back to 2008, evened their first-round series with Orlando, and unleashed a 30-3 run that gave Inside The NBA's panel a result to chew over. What they did not give them was conviction.
Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley spent the postgame show on TNT torn between admiration for Cade Cunningham's 27 points and 11 assists and skepticism about almost everyone wearing red beside him.
"Cade's a stud. Duren's a stud," Barkley said, listing his concerns. "Who are they third and fourth scorers? I don't know if they can." Even with Cunningham's 39-point opener and now a double-double in Game 2, Barkley was unmoved. "I've said a couple months ago, I'm worried about this Pistons team."
The math drove the conversation. Cunningham scored 27. Jalen Duren — usually a 19-and-10 force — managed eight points and seven rebounds while shooting just 3-of-4. The bench filled the gap, but Inside The NBA's hosts kept dragging the discussion back to one number.
"30 and 19 is only 49," Kenny Smith said, after Shaq pressed him on which Pistons absolutely have to score in the East semis. "You got to score. You got to get to 105 points." Smith pointed to Tobias Harris and Ausar Thompson. "Those two guys have to get to a point where they can be consistently in that 15 to 20."
Barkley agreed. "Tobias Harris is the guy who's got to step up. He's a veteran. He should go in with the mindset, I got to get 20."
Game 2's blowout gave Detroit cover, but the panel was equally blunt about why it happened. "Orlando was satisfied with the Game 1 win," Shaq said. "They played pretty much even the first half, but then when Detroit turned the pressure up, Orlando just kind of said, you know what, we're going to let you guys do what you do. And that's why they went on that 30 to 3 run." Barkley nodded along. "Cuz they didn't even try once halftime."
Cunningham, for his part, credited a halftime intervention from head coach JB Bickerstaff. "JB had some words in the locker room," he said. "I think that lit a fire under us to even press even more and just separate ourselves. He knows how to say the right things to get us going."
The Pistons franchise player put the rest on the defense end. "We can be an elite defensive team, a disruptive defensive team that pushes and gets us transition easy baskets. And that's what we did."
The numbers backed him up. Detroit ranked first in the league with 58 points in the paint per game during the regular season but managed only 34 in the Game 1 home loss. In Game 2, they flipped the scoreline exactly: 54-34 in the paint, in their favour.
That kind of inversion tracked with NBA insider Chris Haynes' read on the night. "I think the Detroit Pistons looked at the standings and realized they were actually the number one seed," Haynes said on the postgame show. "They've been the best team all season in the Eastern Conference. They realized who they were. They went out there, executed, and on the defense end, I think they came with toughness."
The series now shifts to Orlando, where Magic guard Desmond Bane has yet to deliver the kind of game his Memphis tape promised, and where Detroit will find out whether their rotation can keep pace with a team that has scored 100-plus on them once in two tries.
Inside The NBA wasn't ready to bury anyone. But the panel made one thing clear: a Cade Cunningham masterpiece won't be enough by itself.
"Cade's got to play like LeBron did in Game 1," Barkley concluded. "He's got — cuz Duren, I think he's got — I like him a lot as a player, but he's not a scorer. And it's up to Cade to get him scores."
Detroit's role players have three games to answer.
