Cade Cunningham scored a career-high 52 points on Thursday, and the Detroit Pistons are 8-3 and third in the Eastern Conference. Last season, a 60-22 Pistons team was eliminated by the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games.

Kendrick Perkins, a former NBA champion with the Boston Celtics, took up the Pistons’ playoff chances on ESPN’s First Take on Friday, a day after Cunningham’s 52 came in a double-overtime win at Washington. He gave the Pistons guard a lofty comparison before raising doubts about how far Detroit can go in the postseason.

Kendrick Perkins Heaps Praise On Cade Cunningham

Sizing up the Pistons as a threat in the East, Perkins began with Cunningham himself: “If Luka (Dončić) and LeBron James had a baby, you’d get Cade Cunningham. He’s the closest thing to those guys when it comes to his size and being at that point guard position or point forward that could get buckets, rebounds, and assists.”

Then he turned to the postseason: “The problem is, is it’s not about Cade and it’s not about the regular season. It’s about when they get to the playoffs, do they have enough offensive firepower to get through the Eastern Conference, right?”

Perkins pointed to last spring and the offseason that followed: “When you think about last postseason, when you saw how Jalen Duren folded like clean sheets and they weren’t able to go through him, they lose Tobias Harris to the San Antonio Spurs. It was moments throughout the postseason last year that we saw Cade get exhausted.”

Perkins’ concerns go back to how last season’s series against Cleveland ended. Cleveland closed it out with a 125-94 win at Little Caesars Arena on May 17, a Game 7 in which the Cavaliers led by as many as 35 points, while Detroit’s largest lead was 1 point.

Duren, who started at center, had a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds in a Game 1 win, 8 points and 2 rebounds in a Game 4 loss, and another double-double, 15 points and 11 rebounds, in a 115-94 Game 6 win in Cleveland.

In Game 7, he had 7 points on 3-of-7 shooting and 9 rebounds in 26 minutes, while Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen scored 23 points in 25 minutes and Evan Mobley added 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Harris, the starter Detroit lost in free agency, scored 20 points in Game 1 and 21 in Game 3 before going 0-of-6 from the field in Game 7 and finishing with 5 points.

Cunningham logged at least 38:38 in Games 1, 3, 4, and 6. He had 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a Game 3 loss but shot 10-of-27 and committed 8 turnovers. In Game 7, he had 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting and went 0-of-7 from the 3-point range, and Detroit was outscored by 32 points in his 37 minutes.

Cunningham’s 52 points came in a 144-140 win over the Washington Wizards on Thursday at Capital One Arena. The game was tied at the end of regulation and again after the first overtime. He shot 16-of-25 from the field and 17-of-18 from the free-throw line, with 11 assists and no turnovers in 48 minutes.

Eighteen of his points came in the fourth quarter and 12 more in the two extra periods. The 52 beat his previous best of 46 and matched George Yardley’s 52 in 1958 for the fourth-highest single-game total in Pistons history.

After the game, Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said: “To be able to do what he does in the moment when he’s called on is unique, and it’s special. He never ceases to amaze. He just understands what it takes to get it done, and then has all the abilities to make those things happen.”

Detroit led 116-110 with 2:38 left in regulation, fell behind 128-121 in the first overtime and went ahead on a Duncan Robinson basket with 9.6 seconds left before Washington’s AJ Dybantsa answered with 2.8 seconds to go, forcing a second.

Bickerstaff was less satisfied with how the Pistons got there: “I told the guys I was proud of their resolve, and I respect their resolve. But we made too many mistakes to put ourselves in that position.”

Detroit won without Duren, who is still out with a right hamstring strain, and got scoring help around Cunningham. Daniss Jenkins scored 21 points, Paul Reed had 13 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, and Ausar Thompson recorded his first career triple-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.

The Pistons play at the Miami Heat on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, then visit the Spurs, Harris’ new team, on Tuesday.