Cade Cunningham's monster performance leads Pistons to second round

It has been a long time coming, but the Detroit Pistons are finally back through to the second round of the NBA playoffs. Thanks to their 116-94 Game 7 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday afternoon, the Pistons advanced to the second round for the first time since the 2007-08 season. 

It was probably not the way anybody expected them to get through, and they certainly made it harder on themselves than they probably wanted, but they got the job done and continue their pursuit of a championship.

The biggest reason they got through: A monster stretch of games from their biggest superstar, Cade Cunningham, when they needed it most.

Cade Cunningham helps Pistons complete series comeback

The Pistons not only needed to overcome a 3-1 series deficit to knock off the No. 8 seed Magic, but they also needed to mount a furious second-half comeback in Game 6 of the series when they were facing elimination and trailed 60-38 at halftime. When Orlando lost that lead and that game, you had to know there was almost no chance they were going to respond, on the road, in a winner-take-all Game 7 against the top team in the Eastern Conference.

They had their chance.

They blew it.

Over the last six quarters of the series, Detroit outscored Orlando by a 171-113 margin. 

For the series, Orlando averaged just 98 points per game and was the lowest-scoring team in the first round for the second postseason in a row. 

That is a problem.

Also, a problem: They had simply had no answer for Cunningham, especially in the last three games of the series.

With the Pistons facing elimination going into Game 5, Cunningham went on a nearly unstoppable run where he scored 109 points over the three games (36.3 points per game) and shot 52% from the field, including a staggering 60% from 3-point range. 

He also added 20 assists and 15 rebounds over that stretch

While Cunningham did most of the heavy-lifting, Tobias Harris also had a monster game on Sunday with 30 points, making him and Cunningham just the fourth set of teammates to both have 30 points in a Game 7 win since the 2000 playoffs. 

When two guys go off in a winner-take-all game like that, and when the best player in the series puts together a three-game stretch like the one Cunningham had, there is not much any team can do about it in response. There was nothing the Magic could do. Now they have to spend an entire summer wondering about what could have been had they not blown that Game 6 lead.