The second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs continued Tuesday with two more Game 1s. The top seeds in the East and West both pulled away for victories. The Detroit Pistons defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-101, and the Oklahoma City Thunder pulled away from the Los Angeles Lakers for an 18-point win.
OKC has yet to lose this postseason, and the Pistons are up 1-0 in a playoff series for the first time since 2008. Let’s take a look at the big winners and losers from Tuesday night’s action.
Winner: Clutch Cade Cunningham
Pistons guard helped Detroit pull away late
When Cade Cunningham went to the bench with 6:32 to play in the fourth quarter, the Pistons, who at one time had led by 18 points and hadn’t trailed since 7-6 in the opening minutes, were clinging to a five-point lead. Less than 90 seconds later, Cleveland had tied the game.
JB Bickerstaff probably wanted to give his superstar a bit longer rest, but you could sense the game swinging to the Cavs, and he had to bring Cunningham right back in. Cunningham went to work right away, not as a scorer, but as a facilitator. He was spoon-feeding Jalen Duren for three straight dunks.
For everything that transpired over the first 40-plus minutes, those three possessions decided this game. The Cavs never got closer than four the rest of the way. Duren was dominant in his own right. He didn’t score in the first round against Orlando the way he did in the regular season, but he was super defensively and as a rebounder.
Same deal on Tuesday, when Duren finished with just 11 points and had just one field goal prior to those three dunks but tallied 12 boards (seven offensive) and two blocks. He was a beast on defense and the glass down the stretch and finished off Cade’s creation in the clutch, which was the predominant formula for his 19.5 PPG in the regular season.
Let’s give an additional shoutout here to Daniss Jenkins for his play late (he had some huge boards and a big-time pull-up jumper to put Detroit back up six with a little over three minutes left en route to 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists off the bench), and Tobias Harris was once again a rock with 20 points and eight boards.
Duncan Robinson buried five 3s on his way to 19 points. Ausar Thompson added 11 and was a defensive monster, as usual. Detroit no doubt loved its box-score balance in this game, with eight guys contributing at least six point and six in double figures.
But again, all of that was about to go out the window before Cade checked back into the game and created those three Duren dunks. The Cavs had all the momentum. And when push comes to shove, the Pistons are almost entirely reliant on Cunningham to create offense. He saved Detroit with 107 points in three elimination games vs. Orlando, and he clutched up again on Tuesday to give Detroit its first lead in a playoff series since 2008.
Loser: James Harden’s (and Cavs’) turnovers
Cleveland’s veteran creator coughed it up seven times
Turnovers were a major reason why the Cavs were forced to go seven games to beat the Raptors in the first round. They committed 121 of them in the series. James Harden was responsible for 36 of those, and in Game 1 against Detroit, he coughed up seven more. All told, the Cavs committed 20 turnovers that led to 31 Pistons points.
On the flip side, Detroit committed just 12 turnovers for 16 Cavs points. That’s a 15-point turnover swing to the Pistons in what wound up a 10-point game. You do the math.
As for Harden, he once again had more turnovers than made baskets (he went 6 for 15 from the field and 1 of 7 from 3 for 22 points). It marks the third time (in eight games) Harden has done that in these playoffs.
Harden has had the ball in his hands, on average, probably more than any single player in playoff history, so a certain amount of turnovers are going to be part of his equation. But he doesn’t score at the level he once did to offset those giveaways. This has to improve, or else Donovan Mitchell is going to have to take on more of the creative responsibilities for Cleveland.
Winner: Chet Holmgren’s matchups
OKC’s center took advantage of mismatches all night
You could just as easily give the nod to Jared McCain for his fourth-quarter shooting barrage. He’s playing for his long-term postseason minutes, whereas Holmgren is obviously secure in that respect.
But Holmgren was tremendous tonight in a way that bodes very well for the Thunder moving forward. The Lakers tried switching defensively early in the game. Holmgren took advantage of the mismatches to rack up a bunch of easy points early. When the Thunder get Jalen Williams back, they won’t need that much actual creation out of him. That’s what they have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for. If he can just punish mismatches as he did in Game 1, he takes switching off of the table for Thunder opponents.
He has, at this stage, more or less secured the title of best defender in the NBA not named Victor Wembanyama, blowing up Laker actions left and right and finishing the game with three blocks and a steal. The Lakers scored just 40 points in the paint in Game 1. With the 3s not falling and the Thunder a near lock to win the transition battle every night, this series is hopeless for the purple and gold if they can’t get to the rim. Holmgren was dominant on both ends in an easy Oklahoma City victory.
Loser: Austin Reaves as a 1A option
The Lakers guard had a night to forget in Game 1
Winning this series without Luka Dončić is an unrealistic goal for the Lakers. Really, this matchup is about evaluating their own players. Who matches up well with the Thunder? Who’s ready for the moment? Who can they trust moving into next year, when they presumably push more assets into the center of the table in an effort to contend?
No player in this series has more to prove than Austin Reaves. Had he not gotten injured earlier in the season, he would have been an All-Star. But he’s fairly athletically limited, and there are real questions about how he matches up against the sort of elite, physical defenders he’d expect to see in the postseason. Well, this is his fourth game against the Thunder this season, and he’s yet to reach 20 points or make more than six field goals. In this one, he shot 3-of-16 for eight points.
Now, Reaves isn’t at full strength. He came back from a Grade 2 oblique strain last round and likely isn’t at or near 100%. He wasn’t against Minnesota last year either. But he’s about to become a free agent this offseason, and while the Lakers almost certainly won’t let him go for nothing, how close they’re willing to get to the max and how untouchable they deem Reaves in future trade talks likely depend, to some extent, on their belief in him in this specific matchup. Winning a championship in the years to come probably means beating the Thunder, and at least in Game 1, Reaves didn’t look up to the task.
