DETROIT (AP) 鈥 Earlier this week, Cade Cunningham said he had learned more in four playoff games than he had picked up in the entire regular season.
Two games later, the lessons have only gotten tougher.
On Tuesday, the Pistons went into Madison Square Garden for Game 5 and . It was Detroit’s second win in New York.
On Thursday, though, it was another crushing last-second loss that ended Detroit’s postseason run. Jalen Brunson hit a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left to put the and Cunningham’s pass to Malik Beasley sailed out of bounds as time expired.
鈥淭he biggest thing I’ve learned about the playoffs is that you have to raise your attention to details,鈥 Cunningham said. 鈥淓very possession means so much more than it does during the regular season, so you have to do everything stronger, faster and a little more together.鈥
Cunningham didn’t have his best game on Thursday. He finished with 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, but he missed all eight 3-point attempts and turned the ball over three times.
鈥淭here are so many plays that I would love to have back,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he turnovers, but there are so many little things that we could have done better.鈥
In the long run, the Pistons had a successful season by any reasonable standard. A franchise that hadn’t broken 25 wins in the last five seasons jumped from 14-68 to 44-38 and the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
They didn’t beat the Knicks, but they took them to six games in only the second NBA postseason series to have four straight games decided by three points or less. Three of them were Detroit home losses by 2, 1 and 3 points.
鈥淭his was an amazing atmosphere and the crowd was hype,鈥 Beasley said. 鈥淣ext year, we have to make sure we protect home court. We got two wins at the Garden, and if we could have gotten one here, we could be closing this out.鈥
The Pistons have a lot of work to do before they take another major step. They aren’t consistent enough shooting 3-pointers 鈥 the starters went 2-17 in Game 6 鈥 and they struggle to keep teams off the offensive glass. The Knicks turned 13 offensive rebounds into 18 points on Thursday.
But those plans can wait for a few weeks.
鈥淭here’s disappointment right now, because these guys don’t have an opportunity to keep doing what they’ve been doing this season,鈥 Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “But this is great experience, because you can’t get playoff experience without getting playoff experience, and these guys did a tremendous job of learning from moment to moment and game to game.
鈥淭hey’ve learned what impacts winning.鈥
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