Pistons claim NBA’s best record behind Cade Cunningham eruption at MSG

Statements get made at Madison Square Garden. Teams feel it. Players lean into it.

And on Thursday night, the Pistons made another one, loud and clear.

Detroit swept the season series with the Knicks, rolling to a 126–111 win on the league’s biggest stage while missing two key rotation bigs due to suspension. That alone would have mattered.

Then there was Cade Cunningham.

Cunningham went for 42 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds, controlling the game in a way MVPs tend to do. Preseason talk about awards was brushed aside back then, framed as a byproduct of winning. Now, he is no longer dodging the conversation.

“I think I am,” Cunningham said when asked if he’s the MVP, via ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill. “And if you don’t agree with me, that’s your opinion.”

The Knicks tried everything. OG Anunoby. Mikal Bridges. Even late switches involving Jeremy Sochan. None of it slowed Cunningham, who shot 5-of-11 from three and added two blocks on the other end.

Detroit also defended. The Knicks, one of the league’s top perimeter shooting teams, went 8-of-35 from deep and missed 15 straight threes in the first half.

“This is just basketball for us,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Same temperament. Same edge.”

The Pistons now own the NBA’s best record at 41-13, having overtaken the defending champion Thunder. They are six games clear in the East and one of the league’s best road teams.

Veteran Tobias Harris put it simply. “He’s a winner. He wants championships.”

At MSG, that came through. And the MVP talk followed him out the door.