Pistons’ Cunningham has 46 on 45 shots in OT win

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 attempts. done by three players.

Cam Whitmore scored 20 points, and Alex Sarr had 15 points and 15 rebounds for the Wizards.

The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.