Cade Cunningham was absolutely brilliant in Wednesday’s Game 5 but is now being reprimanded after the fact.
The NBA announced on Thursday that they are giving the Detroit Pistons superstar point guard Cunningham a retroactive flagrant 1 foul. Cunningham fouled Orlando Magic guard Jamal Cain during the second quarter of their game at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich. during a boxout and was given a common foul at the time.
More precisely speaking, the incident occurred with 20.4 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Orlando guard Anthony Black missed on a three-point attempt, and Cunningham gave a two-handed shove to Cain to prevent Cain from crashing the offensive glass.
You can see the video of the incident at the link here.
Cain has been a primary defender on Cunningham during the first-round series. But it was Cunningham who won the battle on Wednesday, scoring 45 points to lead the Pistons to a 116-109 victory over the Magic (cutting Orlando’s advantage in the series to 3-2).
Unfortunately for the two-time All-Star Cunningham though, he will now be getting a flagrant foul point put onto his total for the postseason. Six points result in an automatic fine and one-game suspension, so Cunningham will have to be careful if Detroit ends up making a deep playoff run (though that is still very much in doubt right now).
