Cade Cunningham led the Detroit Pistons with 22 points and 15 assists as they defeated the Chicago Bulls 127-119 on Sunday afternoon.
Jalen Duren contributed 21 points, 13 rebounds, and four assists, while Malik Beasley added 19 points, five assists, and three steals. Tobias Harris scored 16 points in the win.
Coby White led the Bulls with 22 points. Nikola Vucevic had a triple-double, finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, while Josh Giddey scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
The Bulls were without their top scorer, Zach LaVine, who missed the game for personal reasons. Chicago guard Dalen Terry also left the game in the third quarter with a left knee injury.
Before this game, the Bulls had won 18 of the last 20 matchups with Detroit.
Vucevic scored nine points in the first quarter, helping Chicago take a 35-30 lead. Detroit took control in the second quarter, ending the half with a 14-4 run to lead 64-54 at halftime.
During that run, Duren had four points, six rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Cunningham led the Pistons at the half with 11 points, and Harris added 10.
Chicago came out strong in the second half, cutting Detroit’s lead to just two with a 14-6 run. Ayo Dosunmu scored the first five points of that stretch for the Bulls.
Cade Cunningham (NBA)Detroit responded with a 9-2 run to extend the lead to 79-70. Beasley’s short basket off a Cunningham assist put the Pistons back up by 10, at 84-74.
The Bulls closed the gap to four points, but Detroit finished the third quarter with a 9-4 run, taking a 95-86 lead into the final period.
In the fourth, the Pistons scored the first eight points, extending their lead to 17. Simone Fontecchio hit two free throws, and Marcus Sasser assisted Beasley on back-to-back 3-pointers.
Chicago fought back, narrowing the deficit to seven at 113-106 after a Giddey dunk. However, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Beasley hit 3-pointers to put the game out of reach.
A basket by Dosunmu with under two minutes left made it an eight-point game, but dunks by Harris and Duren on the next two Pistons possessions sealed the victory.
