Cade Cunningham kicked back and watched some play-in games Tuesday night, "knowing we still have games to come." He woke up Wednesday morning for practice, knowing the Pistons' season isn't over. He sauntered off the floor after a long, detailed session prepping for the Knicks and told a crowd of reporters that playoff basketball "is something I’ve always dreamt of."
"It’s exciting," he said. "We’re all hungry and locked-in on what’s to come."
The Pistons aren't just returning to the playoffs. They're returning to the spotlight. Their first postseason game in six years will come Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. After spending most of this season fighting for the NBA's respect, "we’re ready to show the world and show people on that stage what Detroit Basketball is about," said Isaiah Stewart.
"How we play, how we operate and how we get it done," he said.
Stewart and Cunningham have been through the grater in Detroit, and come out grittier on the other side. In 400 games since Stewart was drafted, the Pistons have the most losses in the NBA -- even after becoming the first team ever this season to triple their win total from the year prior. After "all the work, all the years trying to rebuild this thing," said Stewart, "here we are, playing playoff basketball."
Cunningham arrived the year after Stewart and took three brutal seasons on the chin. He also took them to heart, and resolved to put an end to the losing when Trajan Langdon and J.B. Bickerstaff -- his third head coach in three years -- took over last summer. Langdon and Cunningham had some long talks on "long walks" before this season, said Detroit's president of basketball ops, about their shared duty in pushing the Pistons toward a better place.
"He asked me some pointed questions about who I was, what I believed in, what I wanted to do here, what my philosophy was. We agreed to disagree on some things pretty early on," Langdon said with a smile, "but I knew at that point that he really cared, and that leadership was important to him. He talked about it, and now he’s shown it.
"You can see it every day in his approach on the court in the way he talks to guys, whether it’s being empathetic or it’s being challenging. He’s done it both ways. And the age he’s at, in his fourth year in the league, it’s pretty impressive what he’s been able to do."
The Pistons know they're ready for New York, Cunningham in particular. He was unstoppable in his last three games against the Knicks, two of them at MSG, all of them wins. Whether they're ready for the moment is a different matter, with only a few players in their rotation having experienced playoff basketball. Stewart admits that he doesn't know "what it’s going to look like, what it’s going to feel like."
"But I know we’re not going to forget how to play basketball — how to play Detroit Basketball — and I think if we play our style of basketball in any environment, we’ll be just fine," he said.
Detroit Basketball is fierce, feisty and driven by defense, as it's always been at its best. It's unforgiving on the glass, and unapologetic in the paint. It's exhausting, and sometimes exasperating. Stewart, the Pistons personified, thinks that this is "perfect for the playoffs ... when things get chippy and they let you play physical." Players who "understand" Detroit, said Cunningham, "know if they want to earn the respect of the city they gotta play with some grit."
The Knicks, led by a point guard who plays like their bellicose coach, won't back down. They're intent on breaking through, one of the last four teams standing in the East each of the last two years. They have some snarl of their own.
"We know it’s going to be a dog fight," said Cunningham.
In Cunningham, the Pistons might have the biggest dog in the fight. Jalen Brunson is the heartbeat of the Knicks, and Karl-Anthony Towns can be a headache down low. But Cunningham put himself in rare air this season, joining LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic as the fourth player in NBA history to average at least 26 points, nine assists and six rebounds while shooting at least 35 percent from three.
In his first trip to the Garden this season, Cunningham left with a triple-double -- including 15 assists -- in a wire-to-wire win for the Pistons. He returned a month later and dropped 36 in another victory. Asked if he's visualized his first playoff game, Cunningham said cooly, "I’ve played in the Garden, I know what the Garden feels like, so I’m going in there with an open mind."
"I’m not shying away from anything. I’m not blocking out any possibilities. I think I have everything it takes to do what I like to do on the court, so we’ll see when we get there," he said. "I’m ready to go."
The Pistons are raring to go, whether the Knicks are ready or not.