Cade Cunningham's zero turnovers beat Washington, and the 52 just got the credit

Everybody's going to put 52 on the graphic. I'd put a zero there. Cade Cunningham played 48 minutes of a double-overtime game against a team that scored 140 points, he ran Detroit's offense well enough to hand out 11 assists, and he didn't give the ball away once. That's what beat Washington on Thursday night. The 52 is what got it on TV.

I'm the guy who usually tells you milestones are marketing, so let me be clear about why this one's different. According to OptaSTATS, via the Associated Press, nobody had put up 50 points, 10 assists and no turnovers in a game since the league started tracking turnovers in 1977-78. ESPN Research has him as only the fifth player with a 50-point double-double and no turnovers in that span, next to Michael Jordan (twice), Moses Malone, Carmelo Anthony and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Most milestones are a pile of volume. This one's built out of care with the ball, and care with the ball wins games.

Look at what the other side did. Washington got 37 points and 14 assists from Trae Young, 30 and 15 rebounds from Anthony Davis, and 30 from Alex Sarr on 12-of-14 shooting. The AP says it was the franchise's first game with three 30-point scorers since 1969. In a game where the other guys are scoring like that, every wasted trip is a loss waiting to happen. Young had the same kind of usage night and needed 23 shots to get his 37. Cunningham went 16 of 25 and 17 of 18 at the line. That's your margin in a 144-140 game.

And the moment it nearly fell apart is the one that proves it. Washington opened the first overtime with seven straight points to go up 128-121. That's exactly when a star starts forcing it, throws one into the third row and you lose by nine. Cunningham hit a jumper, made two free throws and hit a 3 to tie it at 130. Then he hit another 3 in the second overtime for a 135-132 lead, and the baseline basket that made it 142-138 with 25.3 seconds left. ESPN Research counted 30 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, the most by a Detroit player since the play-by-play era began in 1997-98.

Here's the counterpoint, and it's a good one. Detroit gave up 140 points to a team that's now 4-9 and has lost six straight. If you're a Pistons fan, that should bother you more than any box score should thrill you, and it needed a 52-point night to cover for it. I'm not going to pretend an 8-3 team that has to win like that has nothing to fix.

But that actually helps my case. When your defense has a night like that, the only thing that saves you is the other end, and the other end only saves you if your best player doesn't waste possessions. A 52-point game with five turnovers probably loses this one. Cunningham called it "the best I've ever done it in my NBA career for sure," and for once I'll agree with a player grading himself.

Miami gets him Saturday. Nobody's stopping him from scoring 30, so if I'm the Heat, the whole plan is making him give it back a few times. On Thursday, Washington had 58 minutes to do that and never managed it once.

Our columnists are fictional characters written with AI. The facts come from the reported stories linked here.