The second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs continued on Thursday with a pair of Game 2s. The top-seeded Detroit Pistons, led by Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris, continued their strong run to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 107-97, taking a 2-0 series lead.
Let’s take a look at the big winners and losers from Thursday night’s action.
Winner: Cunningham the floor general
Cade Cunningham took control of the fourth quarter in a “fabulous” performance for the Pistons star
This wasn’t Cade Cunningham’s loudest performance of the playoffs — he attempted only 14 shots in 42 minutes — but he controlled the game as much as he did when he scored 45 points in Game 5 of the Orlando series. For the first three quarters, Cunningham was mostly content to set up his teammates and use the Cavaliers’ pressure against them. In the fourth, he scored 12 of his team-high 25 points, but it never felt like he was forcing it. At times, he was content to let Tobias Harris attack in isolation or Daniss Jenkins initiate.
“Cade is just fabulous,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters after the game. “He’s a killer closer. All of the adjectives you want to talk about it, he’s it. And in the fourth quarter, he does his best work.”
With six minutes left and the Pistons up by just two, Cunningham punished Dean Wade for going under a screen and nailed a pull-up 3. On the next trip down, he got James Harden switched onto him, then calmly knocked down a midrange jumper.
And with less than three minutes left, right after getting a stop against Donovan Mitchell in isolation, Cunningham shook Max Strus for a smooth stepback 3 to put Detroit up by nine. I’m not sure if this qualifies as a dagger — Cleveland managed to make it a two-possession game again — but it was absolutely massive.
Cunningham shot 3 for 6 from deep and 7 for 14 overall, and he made all eight of his free-throw attempts. He also dished 10 assists (including six that led to 3s) and spent a large percentage of his night guarding either Harden or Mitchell. He wasn’t perfect, as evidenced by his five turnovers, but he was a game-high plus-13 and it felt like it.
This is a player who had an otherworldly feel for the game well before he arrived in the NBA. Typically, floor generals like this aren’t also tough, multipositional defenders. Through two games in this series, he has been the best all-around player on the court. — James Herbert
Loser: The first-quarter Cavs
Cleveland can’t stop turning the ball over
Early in the game, in a span that lasted less than two and a half minutes, the Pistons went on a 9-0 run to take a 14-5 lead. During that run, the Cavaliers committed three live-ball turnovers. This has been an issue for Cleveland throughout the playoffs, and it must be driving the coaching staff insane.
Yes, the Cavaliers’ opponents — first the Toronto Raptors and now Detroit — are excellent defensive teams, and they’ve had to deal with a lot of physicality. But the whole point of having Mitchell and Harden on the same roster is that you should be able to handle that sort of thing. If Cleveland’s offense doesn’t look purposeful and doesn’t look organized, something is seriously wrong.
To the Cavs’ credit, they cleaned up the turnover issue after halftime. They turned it over 12 times in the first half, though, and they scored just 81.8 points per 100 possessions (and 59.1 per 100 in the halfcourt) in the first quarter, per Cleaning The Glass.
Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters that the team was “kind of bogged down” offensively and had trouble creating separation. Given that Detroit won the first quarter 37-21 in the opener, this was disappointing.
“I don’t know what it is with the start of games,” Atkinson said. “(The Pistons) came out super aggressive, of course, but it’s playoffs. Obviously, haven’t figured that one out.”
If Atkinson wants to juice the early game offense, maybe Strus or Jaylon Tyson will take Dean Wade’s spot in the starting lineup in Game 3. Regardless of who’s out there, though, the Cavs need to get out of their own way.
“We gotta look at it,” Atkinson said. “We just gotta keep looking at it. There’s lineups, there’s tactics, there’s even more aggressive defensive tactics. Pushing the pace earlier in the game. Maybe running less sets. Although we don’t run a ton of sets. You know how these things go. Everything’s on the table. Everything. We gotta look at it all.” — James Herbert
Winner: Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain
OKC’s dynasty appears to be in good hands
Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain are, essentially, luxuries to the Thunder. Oklahoma City won last year’s championship with Mitchell barely playing. He’s still a reserve when the team is at full strength. McCain might not even be in the full-strength rotation. He played only around 24 total minutes in the first-round win over Phoenix.
And tonight, in a game in which the Lakers contained Shai Gilgeous-Alexander about as well as a team with their personnel possibly can, it was the luxuries that ultimately took the Thunder over the top. The first half belonged to Mitchell, who got to the rim at will against a Lakers defense that couldn’t stay in front of him. The second was McCain’s as he rained 3s that helped turn a close game into a relatively comfortable victory.
There are plenty of teams that would be eager to build their backcourts around the Mitchell-McCain duo. Here, they’re waiting in the wings. Game 2 was a reminder that they won’t be waiting much longer. The Thunder are about to go through their first real round of financial decisions this summer. With the aprons bearing down on them, more expensive veterans are probably going to be shown the door. Both McCain and Mitchell have two cheap years left on their contracts. They’re about to graduate from luxuries to necessities. And they’re more than ready for the job. — Sam Quinn
Loser: The Lakers
Without Luka Dončić, the Lakers just can’t keep it together long enough
Twice in a row now, the Lakers have managed to play the Thunder relatively competitively on the road for a half. They’ve held Gilgeous-Alexander to 40 total points in two games. Other than turnovers, an inevitability against the Thunder, they’ve held up far better against Oklahoma City than anyone could have reasonably expected. And then the second half arrives, the Thunder get serious, and it’s no longer competitive.
There’s nothing the Lakers can do about this in their present condition. The talent deficit is just too big with Luka Dončić out. But seeing the series play out this way has to be somewhat agonizing for a Lakers team that lost four regular-season games to the Thunder by roughly 5,000 combined points. They learned lessons from those losses. They’ve been about as well prepared for this matchup as they could possibly be. If they’d had Dončić, who knows? This series may have been competitive.
It’s encouraging going into next season, but little is assured from there. The Lakers aren’t the Thunder. They don’t have an endless conveyor belt of starting-caliber players to fill in for players who leave. Most of the roster is bound for free agency, and even if key pieces remain, LeBron James is 41. He (probably) can’t do this forever. You never know how many chances you’ll get in the NBA. Through two games, it seems like this could have been a real one for the Lakers if their best player was just healthy. This could’ve been a real series. It isn’t without him. — Sam Quinn
