What Cade Cunningham Had to Say About Detroit Pistons’ Loss vs Jazz

Cade Cunningham explained the Detroit Pistons' early struggles against the Utah Jazz.

Dec 19, 2024; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) dribbles defended by Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson (00) in the first half at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images / Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

A first-quarter beatdown in Detroit went in favor of the Utah Jazz on Thursday night. By allowing the Jazz to shoot at a 65 percent clip from the field, the Detroit Pistons nearly gave up 50 points in the first 12 minutes, which put them down by as many as 29 points.

“We definitely dug ourselves too deep into a hole,” Pistons star Cade Cunningham told reporters after the game. “It’s hard—it’s hard to come back from that.”

Detroit head coach JB Bickerstaff claims there wasn’t a lack of respect for their opponent. Despite the Jazz being one of the NBA’s worst teams by record at the moment, they certainly showed the Pistons it’s still the NBA and anything can happen on any given night in any given quarter.

There was a wake-up moment as early as the second quarter for the Pistons. Once Detroit settled in defensively, they forced ten turnovers in the second quarter, generating 17 points that way. In total, the Pistons outscored the Jazz 35-19 in the second quarter.

Cade: “We dug ourselves too deep of a hole.” pic.twitter.com/0vmNUpCf7A

— Omari Sankofa II (@omarisankofa) December 20, 2024

“I thought we got good shots to start the game,” Cunningham recalled. “We didn’t hit [our shots], they hit probably every shot. It’s kind of like, we didn’t get too down on ourselves, I thought we still were playing good basketball, the ball just wasn’t bouncing our way, but then it snowballed, and we allowed them to get looks that they wanted. They are NBA players. They are going to make shots, they are going to get to their spots. We got to stop them from doing that, and we didn’t do that.”

The Jazz ended up finishing the game by making 47 percent of their 83 shot attempts. From three, they went 20-40. Despite giving up 40 points off of 27 turnovers, the Jazz remained in control thanks to the way they played from the jump.

A 126-119 loss for the Pistons was just a matter of a slow start they couldn’t come back from no matter how many runs they could form,

“I thought we played a good last three quarters,” said Cunningham. “Picked the intensity up. … First group, we kind of just dropped the ball on that one. Didn’t allow ourselves to get back in the game.”