The Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons aim to play a harassing, up-tempo style no matter who fills their rotation.
Detroit will try to maintain that m.o. on Sunday night as it attempts to cap a perfect, four-game road trip in a visit to the slumping Chicago Bulls.
The Pistons again will be missing starter Jalen Duren and reserve Isaiah Stewart, who are serving suspensions for their role in a Feb. 9 brawl at Charlotte.
Detroit star Cade Cunningham helped make up for their absences Thursday, propelling the Pistons to a 126-111 win against the New York Knicks behind 42 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds. It was Detroit’s fourth straight win.
“We’re coming to win every night,” Cunningham said. “We want to impose ourselves and our identity every night, starting on defense and transitioning into offense. Scoring in the paint, defending the paint.”
Cunningham, who entered Friday as the league’s 12th-leading scorer at 25.7 points per game, also has proven to be a pain on the perimeter lately, going 11-for-22 from deep over the past two games. He shot just 6-for-22 from long range in his first five games in February.
“Really just locking in on the way the ball feels leaving my hands and getting the ball up, giving it a chance to go through the rim,” Cunningham said, “and I’ve been putting a lot of work on it.”
Detroit already has earned at least a split of the four-game season series and can clinch it outright with a victory. After losing 115-111 at Chicago on Oct. 22 in the season opener, the Pistons responded with double-digit home wins on Nov. 12 and Jan. 7.
Stewart paced the Pistons in the Jan. 7 game with a career-best 31 points as Detroit was without injured starters Tobias Harris, Cunningham and Duren. Matas Buzelis scored 20 points for the Bulls, whose other top performers in the contest — Ayo Dosunmu (24 points) and Nikola Vucevic (20 points, 16 rebounds) — have since been traded.
Chicago was active at the NBA trade deadline, pulling off a three-way deal with Minnesota and Detroit that sent Kevin Huerter from Chicago to Detroit and Jaden Ivey from the Pistons to the Bulls.
Although he wasn’t listed on the injury report, Ivey didn’t play in Thursday’s 110-101 home loss to Toronto, Chicago’s seventh straight defeat. Bulls interim coach Wes Unseld Jr., who filled in for Billy Donovan for one game after the death of Donovan’s father, called the move “strictly a basketball decision,” even amid a guard-heavy rotation.
Ivey acknowledged lingering knee soreness but said he remains a full participant in practice. He maintained an even keel.
“Whatever the team needs in me, whether or not I’m on the court or playing 10 minutes — I think today was the first DNP of my career — I don’t think it changes any character,” Ivey said. “Win, lose, or draw, I’m here to do my job, glorify God. … This team has a lot of guards. When coach needs me, I’ll be ready to play.”
Chicago’s Collin Sexton has scored at least 25 points in five of his past eight games against Detroit, while Nick Richards has posted a double-double in four of his last six games versus the Pistons.
Harris has registered two straight double-doubles for the Pistons.
