DETROIT (AP) — Cade Cunningham led an unprecedented turnaround in NBA history, lifting the Detroit Pistons to relevance after the three-time championship franchise lost its luster.

Cunningham had an All-NBA caliber season, joining elite company with Oscar Robertson, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic and LeBron James.

Detroit’s point guard and those all-time greats are the seven players in NBA history to average at least 25 points, nine assists and six rebounds in a season.

Cunningham’s breakout season helped Detroit become the league’s first team to triple its number of wins from the previous full season.

He didn’t do it alone.

Jalen Duren’s third season was his best and a trio of newly acquired veterans made an impact on and off the court for a team that had the NBA’s worst record the previous two seasons.

When the sixth-seeded and inconsistent Pistons host third-seeded New York on Sunday in Game 4, they need Cunningham to shine and his supporting cast to make shots and stops.

Cunningham is learning a lot in his NBA playoffs debut and his team is, too, in its first postseason appearance since 2019 because every possession matters and little mistakes lead to losing.

“All these things are making us a better team and I think it’s going to make us better to go win this series,” Cunningham said.

Detroit has dropped eight home playoff games in a row since 2008, pulling within one of an NBA record set by Philadelphia from 1968 to 1971.

If the Pistons lose a second straight matchup, they will tie a league mark and be on the brink of elimination going into Game 5 in New York on Tuesday night

The Knicks are expecting Detroit’s best punch.

“They’re going to come out with physicality and aggression,” Knicks guard Josh Hart told reporters Saturday.

In the only game Detroit won against New York, Cunningham was a star with 33 points on 11-of-21 shooting and 12 assists.

In Games 1 and 3, both won by the Knicks, Cunningham was not at his best and his inconsistent teammates didn’t pick up the slack.

Cunningham had 21 points, missing 13 of 21 attempts, and 12 rebounds in the opener.

In Game 3, he joined James, Westbrook and Rick Barry as the four players in NBA playoffs history to have at least 24 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds, four steals and two blocks in a game.

Cunningham, though, also missed 15 of 25 shots and had six turnovers in the potentially, pivotal game.

OG Anunoby had something to do with that.

The 6-foot-7, 232-pound Anunoby, in his eighth NBA season and first full years with the Knicks, used his strength and quickness to challenge Cunningham.

Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff is confident Cunningham will find a way to make winning plays in Game 4.

“We’ve seen Cade be able to get where he wants to get to and do what he needs to do,” Bickerstaff said said. “Give (Anunoby) respect because he’s earned it, but I still like Cade’s chances.”

To improve Detroit’s shot to even the series, Cunningham’s teammates have to take advantage of the space he creates by making open shots.

While veteran guard Tim Hardaway Jr. made a career-playoff high seven 3-pointers and matched a Pistons record, a usually dependable teammate struggled in Game 3.

Malik Beasley connected on six 3-pointers in the opener and made a franchise-record 319 3-pointers during the regular season, ranking second in the league, but was 2 of 10 beyond the arc Thursday night.

Tobias Harris scored a total of 40 points in the two games at Madison Square Garden, then was held to just five points at Little Caesars Arena.

The Knicks, meanwhile, had one of their most balanced offensive postseason performances in more than a half-century.

Karl-Anthony Towns scored 31 points, Jalen Brunson had 30 points, Anunoby scored 22 and Mikal Bridges had 20 points.

The last time New York had four players score 20-plus points in a playoff game, Hall of Famers Walt Frazier, Jerry Lucas, Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley pulled off the feat in 1972.

“What hurt us in this last game was more our defense than anything we did offensively,” Bickerstaff said.

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Pistons hit rock bottom not long ago, suffering from the embarrassment of the longest single-season losing streak in league history and slumping to the NBA’s worst record for a second straight year.

Tom Gores had seen enough.

The team owner responded with a series of moves less than a year ago, including one that cost him $65 million to fire coach Monty Williams, to spark an unprecedented turnaround.

The Cade Cunningham-led Pistons were 44-38 this season — one year after winning a league-low 14 games — and the 30-game improvement was the best by a team in the league that earned fewer than 20 victories the previous season.

Detroit is also the first NBA franchise to triple its total number of victories from the previous year in an 82-game season.

“I haven’t seen anything like it,” former NBA coach Dwane Casey said in an interview with The Associated Press, drawing on his three-three plus decades in the league.

There’s a reason for that. It had never happened.

After pulling off a feat no one saw coming, the Pistons will tip off their first appearance in the NBA playoffs since 2019 on Saturday night on the road against the New York Knicks.

“It’s surreal that we’re here when you look back at what this team had been through when we took the job,” general manager Trajan Langdon told the AP. “It’s incredibly gratifying and I’m so happy for the players who made it happen.”

Gores purchased the Pistons in 2011, when a three-time championship franchise was trying to rebuild, and failed to find the right combination of management, coaching and players to win until last year’s retooling.

Detroit had only one winning record before this season under Gores, who also owns 27% of the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers. The Pistons were swept in the first round six years ago and in the 2016 playoffs, extending the NBA’s longest playoff losing streak to 14 games dating to May 26, 2008.

Casey endured some of the misery in the Motor City.

He was fired by the Toronto Raptors in 2018, days after winning the NBA Coach of the Year award, and led the Pistons to a .500 record and playoff appearance the next season.

Casey averaged just 20 wins over the next four years. He resigned to became a senior advisor for the team as it hired Williams and went from 17 victories to just 14 under another former NBA Coach of the Year in one of the worst two-year stretches in league history.

Gores refused to let his franchise idle and hope for the best, triggering pivotal decisions that have panned out for the Pistons.

He fired general manager Troy Weaver following four futile years, a decision that surprised no one, then shocked many by firing Williams after only one season.

“Everybody thought it was crazy to let the coach go,” said Casey, a senior advisor for the team. “It took a lot of guts to do that.”

It also took a lot of money.

Gores paid Williams $65 million to leave last May after hiring Langdon, who put J.B. Bickerstaff on the bench shortly after the Cleveland Cavaliers fired a coach who won 99 games the previous two seasons.

“Tom Gores’ decision to move on from Monty created a domino effect, and it’s a move most owners would not have made because of his contract,” said former NBA player and TV analyst Jalen Rose, who often roots for his hometown team while standing up in front of a courtside seat at Little Caesars Arena. “The fact that he was willing to blow it all up sent a message to everyone, including media and fans, and then he hired one of the hottest GM prospects when he got Trajan.

“It also helped that the No. 1 pick took a leap like SGA (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) did in Oklahoma City and Anthony Edwards did in Minnesota.”

The Pistons gave Cunningham, drafted first overall in 2021, a five-year contract extension worth at least $224 million last summer and the point guard has made that deal look like a bargain.

Cunningham became an All-Star for the first time this season, averaging 26.1 points, 9.1 assists and 6.1 rebounds, and went from being a good player with some injury issues to a durable, All-NBA caliber candidate.

“It means everything,” said shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr., one of the key veterans acquired last summer along with Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley. “A lot of this would not be possible without him.”

The turnaround, though, may not have happened if Gores gave Williams another shot this season and yet he was quick to deflect credit to the men making shots and stops on the court and those calling the shots from the bench and front office.

“It means a lot, but we’re not done,” Gores said. “The story has just started.”