Hunter Patterson

After the Pistons’ 14-win season, Cade Cunningham had FOMO watching the playoffs. He texted someone he knew would understand. I spoke with them both for an exclusive on how that text sparked Detroit’s two-year turnaround:

Daniss with tough one to end the half. He cuts the Hornets’ lead to 51-44 entering the break. Cade is the only Piston is double figures with 15 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals.

Combined made field goals so far: 26 Combined fouls so far: 29

Pistons are on a quick 9-2 run.

We’re now at 26 combined fouls and we’ve still got just over 4mins left in the first half.

There’s no flow to this game with all these fouls.

Taurean Prince checks in for some early minutes.

Looked like J.B. just told Cade to come off and Cade said he was good.

Ausar had two assists to four turnovers last night and he’s got one assist to three turnovers tonight. Hasn’t looked comfortably lately.

Hornets up 22-21 at the end of the first. Neither team is shooting it well. Charlotte had a 9-point lead but Detroit battled back to cut it down.

Cade just spent a few minutes giving Ron some pointers and encouragement after he checked out.

Successful challenge for the Hornets. No foul on Grayson and it’ll be Charlotte ball.

Cade is starting this game how he started last night. He’s up to 7 points in 6mins of action.

RT @Pistons_PR: Starting lineups for tonight’s game between the @DetroitPistons and Charlotte Hornets inside @LCArena_Detroit:

Ausar is available.

Ausar Thompson (right ankle sprain) is probable for the Pistons against the Hornets tonight. Isaiah Joe (right hip contusion) remains out.

Isaiah Joe, who will miss his second straight game, is moving well during his pregame workout:

J.B. on the Pistons’ identity: “You start making shots and you start to feel like you can hang onto that. But for us, that’s not our identity. … The shotmaking and 3s is like a new toy that we're playing with, trying to figure it out. Just maintaining who we are first.”

J.B. on his message after last night’s loss: “We’re learning each other still. Again, I don’t think we played our best basketball. Shotmaking can’t dictate all the other things we do. … Defensively we need to be sound, not make mistakes I thought we were making last night.”

J.B. on the second and third quarters: “We just didn’t play our best basketball, it was simple. From an execution standpoint, defensively we did things that were uncharacteristic of our group. … We’ll play better.”

Ausar Thompson on his ankle: “I felt great moving, I didn’t notice my ankle. I was super happy to get back out there with the guys.”