The Detroit Pistons are a bad team.
They’re a very bad one without Cade Cunningham in the lineup.
Monday should have been an ugly night. Cunningham, playing the best ball of his young career, sat with a non-COVID injury as the Pistons hit the road to take on the East-leading Miami Heat. This should have been a laugher, the kind of game you turn off at halftime.
For a few minutes in the third quarter, it looked like it might be.
But the undermanned Pistons scrapped and clawed, led by rookie Isaiah Livers and guard Killian Hayes, hanging around until the final minutes in a 105-96 loss.