On paper it looked like a June matchup stuck in February. On one side, Wembanyama’s Spurs on fire — nine straight, sitting just behind the Thunder in the West. On the other, Cunningham’s Pistons, the best team in the East at 42–14, topping every power ranking. Monday night, Little Caesars Arena packed, playoff buzz in the air and the usual whisper already doing the rounds: “Finals preview.”
San Antonio didn’t wait for the crowd to warm up. 14–2 to start. Tone set: they were the aggressors, they struck first. Detroit clawed back and even led late in the first, but the script had been written. The Spurs didn’t come to “test” the East leader. They came to shove him off his perch. At his own place. 4
Wembanyama, the silent boss
The numbers are obscene: 21 points, 17 rebounds, 6 blocks for Victor Wembanyama. Then there’s everything the boxscore doesn’t show. Layups turned into floaters, drives that die right before the rim, guards cocking a glance at the basket and slowing down like someone just switched the lights off in the paint.
Wemby DISRUPTS the game on both ends of the floor in tonight’s road victory!
👽 21 PTS
👽 17 REB
👽 4 AST
👽 6 BLK9 wins in a row for the @spurs! pic.twitter.com/jgVOfjhzw1
— NBA (@NBA) February 24, 2026
Wembanyama doesn’t just swat shots. He breaks an offense that usually steamrolls opponents. Cade Cunningham, who’s been the flawless engine behind the league’s best record, shot 5-for-26. Twenty-one bricks. The kind of night where every attempt meets a hand, a shadow, a hesitation. He finishes with a 16-10 double-double, but that’s not the image that sticks. What sticks is the feeling that every time he looked at the rim a 7-foot-4 wall answered, “not tonight.”
While Wemby locked down the dirty work, Devin Vassell handled the showcase. 28 points, 10-of-14 from the floor, 7-of-11 from deep. Every time Detroit felt momentum, No. 24 dropped another long-range dagger — clean, clinical, no drama. This wasn’t just “the guy who stands next to Wemby.” Vassell is a scorer in his own right, and he can light it up on a serious stage.
Detroit did have answers. Jalen Duren, back from suspension, served up a monster double-double: 25 points, 14 boards, 10-of-13 shooting. He powered to the rim, owned the glass, grabbed seven offensive rebounds. When the Pistons’ shooters couldn’t buy a bucket, Duren kept them within striking distance with pure paint muscle.
But here’s the problem with the 2026 Spurs: intensity alone isn’t enough. You’ve got to hit shots too. San Antonio drilled 18-of-40 from three, Detroit 7-of-36. When Vassell, Wembanyama and the Texas shooters rained bombs while the Pistons stacked bricks, this “Finals preview” started to look like a lesson in reality.
Cunningham struggling, tempers flare
Some nights the ball falls. Some nights it refuses. This was one of the latter for Cade Cunningham. 5-for-26, 2-for-9 from deep, despite 10 assists showing he kept creating. You could see him forcing, grumbling, pleading for whistles, shoving a scowl into the timeout. Not season-ending stuff, but telling when the East’s best meets an West-level playoff defense.
Cade Cunningham was LIGHTS OUT tonight 🔥
16 PTS
5/26 FGM (19.2%)
2/9 3PM (22.2%)
28.4% TSpic.twitter.com/xAX980NdVG— NBA Tour Dates (@NBATourDates) February 24, 2026
Frustration boiled over in the second quarter. Cunningham flails his arms, collides with Stephon Castle — offensive foul called. Keldon Johnson steps in, shoves him, Duren joins the scrum pointing right at his face. Little scenes like that feed timelines on a February night, but in June they’d be rewound and picked apart as the start of something nastier.
Without Isaiah Stewart — still suspended after the Charlotte altercation — the Pistons didn’t need another physical episode. They needed calm, clean looks and open threes. They didn’t get enough of any of it.
San Antonio move on, Detroit wakes up sore
San Antonio leaves Detroit with a ninth straight win, a 41–16 record and a blunt message to the rest of the league: count them now. Only the Thunder sit above them in the West. And the Spurs aren’t even done with this road trip — they’ll meet these same Pistons again on March 5 in Texas.
Detroit took a home loss, slipped to 42–14, but still holds the East. The warning flag is real, not fatal: Stewart is out, the perimeter shooting abandoned them, Cunningham had a nightmare. It happens. What matters is the reply. And it comes quick — Oklahoma City rolls into Michigan on Wednesday for a meeting of conference leaders.
If this late-Feb Spurs–Pistons clash was a Finals teaser, San Antonio just dropped the muscle-packed trailer. Detroit got 48 minutes of tuition on what an unflinching team looks like: disciplined, sure of itself, playing like June had already started — led by Victor Wembanyama, who doesn’t flinch from contact.
Source: Photo by NIC ANTAYA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
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