Mitch Albom: Cade Cunningham, Pistons outshined by Cavs starting stars

It’s not fair to expect any man to be perfect, and Cade Cunningham is no exception. The problem so far in these maddening playoffs is that, when he’s not perfect, his team’s imperfections become glaring. Here were the Detroit Pistons in uncharted waters on Wednesday, May 13 – overtime waters, and their boat had sprung a leak.

The last time this franchise saw an overtime playoff game was 19 years ago, when most of the current players were still sucking their thumbs. So perhaps they didn’t realize this: In such moments, you traditionally rely on your stars to win it. Instead, the Pistons were watching their third-string center getting blocked and their backup point guard miss a 3-pointer and another backup guard miss another 3-pointer, while their starting center sat on the bench and their starting shooting guard was in street clothes.

SHAWN WINDSOR: Pistons must forget one of the worst collapses in Detroit sports history And then Cunningham, already fatigued from dropping 37 points in regulation and being consistently double-teamed, made two you-can’t-do-that errors: He lost the ball on a careless handle, which turned into a Cleveland layup, and he failed to box out James Harden on a free throw, resulting in a Harden offensive board, precious seconds off the clock and a foul that put two more Harden free throws on the board. In a five-minute overtime period, that’s enough to swing the game. “Turning over the ball over in overtime.

… I wish I could have that play back for sure,” Cunningham said. “There’s a lot of plays I wish I could take back. But it’s basketball.