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Cunningham's late 3s lift Pistons past Hornets 97-89

Detroit's Cade Cunningham hit two 3-pointers in the last two minutes, and the Pistons forced 23 Charlotte turnovers.

Cunningham: 30 points, 10-of-22 shooting
Miller: 31 points, 12 rebounds in the loss
Hornets 23 turnovers, Pistons 13

Published October 28, 2026 at 10:16 PM1 min read How this story was written

Final

Charlotte Hornets

Detroit Pistons

Box score and plays

Cade Cunningham scored 30 points and hit two 3-pointers in the final two minutes as the Detroit Pistons beat the Charlotte Hornets 97-89 on Wednesday, October 28.

Cunningham shot 10-of-22 and had 7 assists with one turnover. With Detroit up 91-86 and 2:07 left, he hit a 24-footer off a pass from Ausar Thompson.

Dennis Schroder answered from 29 feet to make it 94-89. Cunningham, set up by Thompson again, hit from 25 feet with 31.1 seconds left for the final margin.

Charlotte led 40-28 in the second quarter. Detroit outscored it 32-19 in the third, including a 12-0 run that put it up 60-56, and led 80-70 early in the fourth.

Brandon Miller cut it to 83-89 with an 8-foot pullup, but Daniss Jenkins answered inside to restore the eight-point margin. Charlotte again scored 19 in the fourth, and never got closer than five in the last three minutes.

Paul Reed added 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and Jenkins had 14 on 6-of-10 from the bench. Detroit's reserves outscored Charlotte's 27-23.

Miller led all scorers with 31 points on 12-of-26 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds for a double-double. Schroder had 14 points but turned the ball over five times.

Charlotte turned it over 23 times to Detroit's 13. The Hornets shot 12-of-35 from 3-point range and the Pistons 13-of-33. Detroit improved to 4-1, Charlotte fell to 3-2.