Cade Cunningham and Paolo Banchero made NBA history not seen in a quarter-century
Arguably the best duel of the playoffs so far.
Cade Cunningham and Paolo Banchero made NBA history not seen in a quarter-century originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Detroit Pistons outlasted the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night, as Cade Cunningham and Paolo Banchero put on a show for the ages in Game 5 of their first-round series.
The Pistons' 116-109 home win pushes this series back to Orlando for Game 6 on Friday. Cunningham scored 45 points, a Pistons playoff record, and Detroit needed every one of those points amid continued struggles to find reliable secondary scoring. MORE : Cade Cunningham makes history as Detroit stays alive But Banchero dropped a 45-point masterclass of his own.
The Magic All-Star flirted with a triple-double as he added nine rebounds and seven assists. The combination of dueling 45-point performances made Wednesday night's Game 5 only the second game in NBA history where two former top overall draft picks scored at least 40 points in a head-to-head matchup. The only other time this happened was in Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals, when Allen Iverson scored 48 points in the Philadelphia 76ers ' win over Shaquille O'Neal (44 points) and the Los Angeles Lakers .
This is only the second game where two No. 1 overall picks each had 40+ PTS against each other in the SAME game š³ The first: Allen Iverson and Shaquille O'Neal in Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals š„ pic. twitter.