MIAMI — Cade Cunningham has arrived.

The 2021 No. 1 overall pick got off to a strong start in his third season, scoring 30 points and dishing nine assists as he led a valiant comeback effort by the Detroit Pistons, who trailed by 19 with 9:26 remaining in the final period. Cunningham had several clutch plays to help the Pistons cut the deficit to one with 2.5 seconds remaining.

But Cunningham's 3 at the final buzzer didn't fall. The Pistons opened the season with a loss, but head coach Monty Williams, making his debut with the franchise, was happy with the team's resilience after the game.

Isaiah Stewart (14 points, 14 rebounds) and Jalen Duren (17 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks) both tallied double-doubles, and Ausar Thompson, the Pistons' No. 5 overall pick this summer, finished with four points, seven rebounds and five blocks in his NBA debut.

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Cunningham starts hot, finishes hot

Cunningham became one of the Pistons’ biggest stories of the offseason after a strong performance with the Team USA Select Team. Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who was an assistant coach for the team, had kind words for Cunningham before the game.

“The way he plays the game offensively, it belies his years and experience,” Spoelstra said.

After a quiet preseason, Cunningham announced himself on Wednesday. He finished the first half with 18 points on a tidy 8-for-11 shooting. He got to his midrange jumper consistently, as he did last season before his shin surgery knocked him out for the year. But he saved his best for the final period.

He was the architect behind a 14-0 run that allowed the Pistons to trim a 19-point deficit to five, 94-89, with 6:25 remaining. He scored or assisted the first 12 points of the run; the final two of the stretch came on a Duren tip-in of Cunningham’s missed layup.

In the final minutes, Cunningham stole the ball and found Duren in transition for an alley-oop to narrow the deficit to four, 103-99. Another turnover by the Heat led to Cunningham knocking down a pullup 3, slicing Miami’s lead to just one. He couldn’t get the last shot of the night to fall, but he was the primary reason why the Pistons managed to get back into the game.

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers

It was one of the weirder starts to a Pistons season you’ll ever see. They tallied nine of their 16 overall turnovers in the first quarter, largely due to poor ball control and sloppy passing. The Heat scored 14 points off of those turnovers, and coughed the ball up just once. But it was the Pistons who had the lead going into the second quarter, 29-26.

Unfortunately, they continued gifting free points to Miami. Detroit’s first possession of the second quarter was another poor one— a misplaced lob from Kilian Hayes to Jalen Duren. It took just 12 minutes and 41 seconds for the Pistons to hit double-digit in the turnover column. They finished the first half with 15, off of which the Heat scored 21 points.

Detroit also went cold in the second period — shooting 7-for-22 after going 11-for-19 in the first, and Miami outscored them 32-18 to take a 58-47 lead into halftime. But the Pistons can’t blame their poor shooting. Most of their problems were self-inflicted.

Back-to-back turnovers early in the fourth quarter led to consecutive Heat buckets, allowing them to take their biggest lead of the night, 94-75, with 9:23 to play.

Stewart finds his touch from downtown

Detroit’s fourth-year big man struggled from behind the arc during preseason, making just four of his 21 attempts and one of his last 11. Williams didn’t express any concern afterward, noting that he has seen Stewart put in the work.

Stewart appeared to knock off his rust, as he got off to a strong start. Detroit’s first points of the season came on a Stewart jump hook over Kevin Love, and he followed that by finding Duren cutting to the rim for a dunk. Then, the 3-pointers started falling.

He knocked down his first outside attempt of the game early in the first. His next one, with just under four minutes remaining in the quarter, might’ve been the most difficult make of his career. He lost Love with a pump fake, took a step to the right and calmly knocked it down.

It’s a small sample size, but Stewart has hit 3s in the past. Wednesday was a good sign.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons rally behind Cade Cunningham, but fall, 103-102