Cade Cunningham carries Pistons in must-win Game 5 nail-biter over Knicks

Cade Cunningham had 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and the Detroit Pistons stayed alive in their first postseason appearance since 2019 by beating the New York Knicks 106-103 on Tuesday night in Game 5 of their first-round series.

Ausar Thompson added 22 points and Tobias Harris had 17 for the Pistons, who will have a chance to even things up Thursday night at home in Game 6. If they win that, the deciding game would be back at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Detroit, though, has lost an NBA record-tying nine straight home games since 2008.

But the Pistons seem comfortable in New York, where they were 2-0 in the regular season and now 2-1 in this series, including their Game 2 victory that snapped their 15-game postseason losing streak, the longest in NBA history.

Not surprisingly, they still like their chances in the series.

“Confident,” Cunningham said. “We’ll be back.”

OG Anunoby scored 19 points for the Knicks, who were trying to reach the Eastern Conference semifinals for the third straight season. Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges each had 17, but Jalen Brunson had his worst game of the postseason with 16 points on 4-for-16 shooting.

The game was tied at 95 before Jalen Duren made consecutive baskets and Cunningham scored for a six-point lead. The Pistons got a good break when Brunson and Josh Hart both left the game with injuries with 2:57 remaining and play went on for a while without a stoppage when they were ready to return. By the time they could, there were only 27 seconds left.

The Knicks cut it to 104-103 on Anunoby’s 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds remaining before Cunningham made a pair from the line with 5.4 to play for the final margin.

Brunson had scored 30 or more points in every game of the series and was averaging 33.3 through four games before not even getting halfway there Tuesday, when the Knicks were trying to win a series on their home floor for the first time since the 1999 Eastern Conference finals.

Now they will try to do it in Detroit, where they won Games 3 and 4.

Duren finished with nine points, 14 rebounds and six assists.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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