DETROIT — Cade Cunningham scored 46 points on a whopping 45 shots, Daniss Jenkins made the tying 3-pointer to force overtime and the Detroit Pistons rallied to beat the Washington Wizards 137-135 on Monday night.
Cunningham finished with 12 rebounds, 11 assists and 5 steals, helping the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons to their seventh straight victory on a night he shot just 14 for 45, by far the most field goal attempts in the NBA this season.
His 31 missed shots are the most by a player in a game since the 1976-77 merger. The last player to miss that many shots was Rick Barry in 1967, when he went 17-of-50 from the field. Of the 1,534 instances of a 45-point game in NBA history, Cunningham had the second-worst field goal percentage (31.1%), behind only James Harden (20.7%) in 2019.
Cunningham became just the second Pistons player with a 40-point triple-double, joining Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas.
Jenkins scored a season-high 24 points, and Jalen Duren had 19 points and 14 rebounds for the Pistons, who improved to 9-2.
CJ McCollum scored a season-high 42 points for the last-place Wizards, but he missed twice in the closing seconds as they lost their ninth straight and fell to 1-10.
McCollum's 3-pointer gave Washington a 117-108 lead with 4:05 remaining in regulation. But Cunningham, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, rallied the Pistons, and they tied it when he inbounded to Jenkins in the corner for a 3-pointer that tied it at 127.
Duncan Robinson's 3-pointer with 1:04 left in overtime gave Detroit the lead for good at 134-133.
Cunningham shot 2 for 11 from 3-point range but 16 of 18 from the free throw line in his 12th career triple-double. The previous high in the NBA this season was 32 field goal
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