Without Cade Cunningham, Pistons Fall To Minnesota

Cade Cunningham missed the game due to a hip pointer, which meant Rodney McGruder got the start for the Pistons. Losing a talent, scorer and distributor like Cunningham is hard to replace, and McGruder simply did not bring enough to the starting lineup finishing with just six points, two assists and one rebound in 17 minutes of action.

Speaking of action, Frank "Action" Jackson did bring enough as he poured in 25 off the bench to lead all scorers. Jackson's quick release allowed him to fire off several contested three pointers as he knocked down five of them on 11 attempts. Saddiq Bey and Jerami Grant scored 21 and 20 respectively to round out Detroit's 20-point scorers.

As for the flip side of the coin, Kelly Olynyk and Killian Hayes really struggled to help the Pistons tonight. Olynyk scored just four points in just under 15 minutes of action, while Hayes logged over 20 minutes but only managed two points. The Piston bench has been one of its strengths this year, so when two pieces of it struggle like that, it's going to be a rough night.

With Cunningham out, the Pistons were a little out of sorts in transition, really on both ends of the floor. Minnesota is a team that really likes to push the ball and they had a huge advantage in fast break points tonight, outpacing the Pistons 23-4 in that area. Cunningham was listed as questionable ahead of tonight's game, so hopefully he'll be back tomorrow against the Celtics. Head coach Dwane Casey spoke about Cunningham's availability moving forward.

"We'll see how he feels tomorrow," Casey said. "That will be up to our medical people to see if his butt muscles are kicking or not or firing or not. It's painful when you fall on that part of your body. I think he's going to start wearing some pads to protect himself but we'll see how he feels tomorrow."

The Pistons will host the Boston Celtics tomorrow, hopefully with a semi-healthy and ready-to-go Cade Cunningham. The Celtics are currently 28-25 and just on the outside of the playoff picture at No. 9 in the East. They're one of the more disappointing teams this season, so the Pistons should be pulling out all the stops to avoid a three-game, home losing streak.