Cade Cunningham Returns From Collapsed Lung, Posts Double-Double in Pistons Win

The injury that briefly threatened to derail Cade Cunningham's most complete NBA season had no visible effect on his court vision. Three weeks after suffering a collapsed left lung against the Washington Wizards, Cunningham returned to the Detroit Pistons lineup Wednesday night and posted 13 points, 10 assists and five rebounds in 26 minutes as the Pistons routed the Milwaukee Bucks 137-111 in their home finale at Little Caesars Arena.

The performance, his 38th double-double of the season, came on 6-of-11 shooting and included a block and a steal. Cunningham scored four points in the first quarter, with his first basket arriving at the 8:28 mark on a dunk off a pass from Ausar Thompson. The Pistons led 42-28 after one quarter and 75-57 at halftime, turning the home finale into a celebration.

Cunningham had been sidelined since March 17, when a collision with Washington Wizards guard Tre Johnson resulted in a left lung pneumothorax. It was initially expected he would miss the remainder of the regular season and use the final week before the playoffs solely to ramp up. The Pistons listed him as questionable for Wednesday before upgrading him to available earlier in the day.

His 26 minutes in a blowout were telling. Detroit prioritized getting Cunningham playoff-ready over chasing any regular-season benchmark, a calculation that becomes obvious given the seeding context: the Pistons had already locked up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2006-07, finishing 57-22 with a three-game cushion over the Boston Celtics. The rebuild that began after years of lottery misery did not need Wednesday's result. The Bucks game was about rust-removal ahead of a first-round series that begins April 18.

Detroit went 8-3 during Cunningham's absence, averaging 114.8 points per game without him. Those numbers confirmed the roster has genuine depth. They also obscured what the Pistons lose structurally without their point guard: Cunningham was averaging 24.5 points and 9.9 assists per game entering Wednesday, second in the NBA in assists behind Nikola Jokic and a career high. His absence shifted Detroit's offense away from his pick-and-roll creation; his return restores the system that produced the league's top seed.

Isaiah Stewart, who had missed 13 consecutive games with a left calf strain, also returned Wednesday, scoring eight points on 3-of-3 shooting in 11 minutes. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff had said having both players in action before the playoffs would allow the group to "get some time together on the floor" and "ramp up to the intensity" of postseason basketball.

The one dimension of Cunningham's season that Wednesday could not fix is his award eligibility. At 62 games played with two regular-season contests remaining, he falls three short of the 65-game minimum required for MVP, All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year consideration. The NBA Players Association responded with a formal statement, calling Cunningham's situation "a clear indictment of the 65-game rule" and demanding it "be abolished or reformed to create an exception for significant injuries." Commissioner Adam Silver defended the rule, saying, "I'm not ready to say it's not working because there is a sense of unfairness for one player." Cunningham and the Pistons could pursue an "extraordinary circumstances" exception under the collective bargaining agreement, similar to the path the Los Angeles Lakers explored for Luka Doncic.

For the franchise, though, the award debate is secondary. Cunningham just posted a double-double in 26 minutes off a three-week lung injury, on a team seeded first in the East entering its first deep playoff run in nearly two decades. His comeback shifts nothing about Detroit's offseason priorities; it confirms them entirely: protect this player, build around him, and see how far this rebuilt roster can go in April.