Cade Cunningham scored 24 points, Ausar Thompson added 22 and each made a clutch shot in the final two minutes to help the visiting Detroit Pistons avoid elimination in the first round of the playoffs with a gritty 106-103 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 5 on Tuesday.
The Pistons sent the series back to Detroit for Game 6 on Thursday. If the Pistons can win at home for the first time in the series, the teams would return to New York for Game 7 on Saturday.
“We’re hungry, man,” Cunningham said. “We gave both games away at the crib. Our fans did a great job of coming out, giving us a lot of energy. We dropped both of those games. We’re all excited to be able to get back home.”
Tobias Harris added 17 points and Dennis Schroder contributed 14 off the bench for the Pistons, who shot 42.4 percent. Malik Beasley finished with 10 points while Jalen Duren added nine points and 14 rebounds, including the putback dunk that snapped a 95-95 tie with 3:09 left and a putback that gave the Pistons a 99-95 lead with 2:31 to go.
“I think we did a great job of getting to our spots and executing the stuff we knew we could get to,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “That created an advantage for us. It all started with Ausar and his defense. He was phenomenal defensively tonight (and) offensively to come up with the 22 points, but I think it started with his defense and a lot of credit should be given to him.”
OG Anunoby scored 19 points to lead the Knicks, who still haven’t clinched a series on their home court for the first time since beating the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the 1999 Eastern Conference finals. Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges finished with 17 apiece, but Jalen Brunson was held to 16 on 4-of-16 shooting as the Knicks shot 43.3 percent and missed 11 of 27 free throws.
“The challenge is to reset,” New York coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Every game is different. Take a look at the film and see what we can better.”
Cunningham gave Detroit a 101-95 lead with a difficult floater in the lane with 1:57 left, and Thompson converted a dunk with 27.4 seconds remaining for a 103-97 edge. After those shots, the Pistons survived Bridges hitting a corner 3-pointer with 25.3 seconds to play and Anunoby’s left-side trey over Cunningham with 7.1 seconds left that cut Detroit’s lead to 104-103.
Detroit called its final timeout with 5.7 seconds left and Cunningham put Detroit up three by making two foul shots with 5.4 seconds remaining. After New York’s Miles McBride missed two free throws with 2.6 seconds remaining, the Knicks secured an offensive rebound but could not get off a final shot before the horn sounded.
Towns said, “You expected them to come out desperate and with that energy. The season’s on the line. They hit shots when they had to and got the stops they needed to when they needed to.”
Detroit held a five-point lead after Thompson’s dunk with 4:18 left in the second quarter, but the Knicks recovered to take a 50-49 lead into halftime.
Thompson’s dunk opened a 59-53 lead and capped an 8-0 run less than three minutes into the third, and Harris hit an open trey for a 66-57 edge with six minutes left in the period. Two free throws by Thompson gave Detroit a 71-61 lead, and the Knicks ended the quarter with a 13-6 burst to slice the deficit to 77-74 entering the fourth.
–Field Level Media
