The Bounce: Can Pistons survive without Cade Cunningham? And another LeBron record

The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. Jamal Crawford turns 46 today. He’s already making a great venture into a media career as a color analyst in games. He’s also one of the most entertaining players to ever touch a basketball. I’m firmly of the opinion that if you don’t enjoy watching his highlights, then you either don’t like basketball or you’re upset at your own lack of basketball skills. Happy birthday to Jamal! Here are nearly 12 minutes of ridiculous Crawford highlights The Pistons gave us some terrible news yesterday when they let us know Cade Cunningham has a collapsed lung and will miss at least the next two weeks. Cunningham has led Detroit (50-19) to the No. 1 seed in the East — in a wire-to-wire effort — and emerged as an MVP candidate this season. It’s been a massive leap from the 14-win season the franchise endured two years ago. And now we don’t even know if he’ll play another game in this regular season. From our news story: “Cunningham, 24, was initially ruled out of Tuesday’s game against the Washington Wizards with back spasms after colliding with Wizards rookie Tre Johnson when the two were attempting to corral a loose ball in the first quarter. The Pistons ruled him out Wednesday with a left back contusion, but further testing revealed that Cunningham had a collapsed lung.” Granted, I’m no doctor, but I’m consistently shocked by how casual the sports world is with the words “collapsed lung.” If my lung collapsed, I’d be expecting my last rites. Instead, Cunningham will probably be back by the playoffs. Injury expert Jeff Stotts posted this on social media about the average time for NBA players who have suffered a collapsed lung. I forgot that it happened to McCollum twice. I do remember when it happened to Gerald Wallace. If you listen closely, he sounds like the sick Triceratops from “Jurassic Park.” OK, back to the Pistons! If Cunningham misses just the next two weeks, that has him coming back with six games left in the season. He would need to play in five of those to qualify for the regular-season awards. He’s at 61 games but only played five minutes on Tuesday before leaving with the injury. You need to play 20 minutes for it to be counted toward the 65-game minimum. Fun rule! If he misses the next 26 days, as per Stotts’ average time lost stat, then Cunningham would not return until the Pistons’ first playoff game. The Play-In teams who could advance and be Detroit’s first-round opponent right now are the Heat, Hawks, 76ers and Hornets. The Pistons still have a 3.5-game lead on Boston for the No. 1 seed, and they’re four losses ahead. The Celtics have the fourth-toughest schedule remaining, while Detroit has the 14th. If Cade misses just those eight games, he’d be out against the Wizards, Warriors (without Steph Curry), Lakers, Hawks, Pelicans, Wolves, Thunder and Raptors. That’s not an easy schedule. The Pistons are 5-2 without Cunningham this season. They have a plus-10.9 net rating with him on the floor and plus-2.7 net rating with him off the court. So they can definitely “survive” when he’s not playing. But Detroit will have a tough time finishing the season strong without its best player. 👽 Clinched. The Spurs secured their playoff berth in spectacular fashion last night: with a Victor Wembanyama game-winner. 🏀 Viva? Las Vegas keeps being named as an obvious expansion city. Can the city actually support an NBA team? 🏀 Rolling. I think people have moved away from the Luka Dončić backlash from a couple of months ago. He dropped 60 last night. 👻 Chasing. Kevin Durant is 51 points away from passing Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. He says MJ has always been his inspiration. 🦌 Roadkill. The Giannis-less Bucks lost by 32 points to the hard-tanking Jazz last night. Safe to say things are not going so well in Milwaukee. Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass. LeBron James tied Robert Parish for the most games played in NBA history yesterday. And he did it in Miami, where he won his first two championships. That’s meaningful, because it could have been his last game in Miami. (The 41-year-old would probably announce his farewell before his last season, and the NBA would certainly love to give him a goodbye befitting his historic career. Similar to what we saw with Kobe Bryant in the 2015-16 season.) If LeBron plays tomorrow against the Magic, nobody will have played in more games. This adds to his many NBA records as he continues to bolster the G.R.O.A.T. (greatest résumé of all time). These are some of the noteworthy records he currently holds: Here are some all-time lists he’s very high on, as well: The all-time games record is an incredible achievement. All these are. Most shots? Most points? Most minutes? Most games? The longevity of it all has been discussed a lot, but nobody has ever put together a career like this. Getting to 1,600-plus games is just absurd. In LeBron’s first 15 years in the league, he missed 71 total games. He played in 94.1 percent of his possible games in his first decade and a half! Then he played another eight years on top of that. While he’s battled plenty of injuries, he’s still about to kick the door down on the all-time games played list. The list is pretty incredible: The top eight all make sense. If you weren’t around for Kevin Willis’ 21-year career, then his placement on the list probably surprises you. But No. 10 on the list truly shocked me. Don’t look it up. I want you to make some guesses in your head and maybe even write down your best guess on a piece of paper. We’ll reveal the answer later in this newsletter. More NBA Draft prospects to watch in the first round BYU’s AJ Dybansta got sent home by No. 11 seed Texas in the NCAA Tournament first round yesterday. Or was he sent to the first pick in the 2026 draft? Regardless, we have a lot of prospects to track in today’s first-round games. Let’s go over the players you need to clock today. Sam Vecenie’s latest mock draft remains a crucial reference guide. Don’t forget we’ve got the meter of 👀 emoji on a scale of 1-5. You get five of those 👀, then you’re a big-time player to watch. Some of these matchups and prospects will get more 👀 in games against great opponents. 12) Akron vs. 5) Texas Tech — 12:40 p.m. ET on TruTV Christian Anderson, Texas Tech: This kid can absolutely shoot the lights out. The 6-2 guard is making 42.5 percent of his 3s on eight attempts per game. He can score and pass. He’s primed for a big tournament. Attention meter: 👀👀👀 Koa Peat, Arizona: He’s a man among boys, and everybody is looking to see if he can take over during this tournament run. This matchup feels unfair. Brayden Burries, Arizona: Vecenie has Burries mocked in the top 10 in this draft, which is a massive rise from being in the low 30s on Sam’s big board back in January. Let’s see if he can knock down a lot of 3-pointers. Attention meter: 👀👀 (It’s low simply because of the matchup.) Labaron Philon, Alabama: He’s one of the top guards in the draft, but this is a loaded crop of guards. Scouts want to know if his improved jumper translates to the NBA. Attention meter: 👀👀 (because of the matchup.) Nate Ament, Tennessee: Ament has intrigued a lot of front offices toward the top of the draft. But he’s definitely been usurped by Caleb Wilson as the forward who could go highest once the big three are off the board. Time to have a big tournament run. Attention meter: 👀👀👀👀 Bennett Stirtz, Iowa: Stirtz looks like a fringe lottery guard, and he can really shoot. He’s the type of scorer who could have massive games, even bigger than his short run with Drake in last year’s tournament. Attention meter: 👀👀👀 16) Prairie View A&M vs. 1) Florida — 9:25 p.m. on TNT Thomas Haugh, Florida: Florida is going to destroy this team, but Haugh is a fringe lottery guy. If he’s flashing a lethal 3-point shot, scouts will love everything about his game. Attention meter: 👀👀 Darryn Peterson, Kansas: You already know the deal. People want to see him play. And they want to see him play like he did before the hamstring injury. Every game with him is an important spotlight. Attention meter: 👀👀👀👀👀 Braylon Mullins, UConn: We don’t know if he can guard at the NBA level, but he’s an elite shooter who could light up opponents. Attention meter: 👀👀👀 OK, let’s reveal the 10th player in all-time games played. Did you guess a guard? Did you guess a guard who was only listed at 6-foot-2? A 6-foot-2 guard who was never an All-Star or All-NBA? He won a championship and a Sixth Man of the Year award. He went to Arizona. That’s right. Jason Terry is 10th all-time in NBA games played. Who knew?!