By PAUL GOTHAM
Last week Isaiah Stewart was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Month. On Wednesday night, the former McQuaid Jesuit standout posted his career-best on the offensive end.
Stewart scored 31 in the Detroit Pistons 108-93 win over visiting Chicago.
With the Pistons’ leading scorer, Cade Cunningham, on the bench suffering from a wrist injury, the sixth-year player connected on 14 of 17 attempts from the floor on converted 1-of-2 free throws.
“It feels good,” he told MLive after the game. “I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t think I would touch 31 or 30 at this level just because of my role and the way I play…my mind was to be ultra-aggressive and try to take the right shots just to propel us forward.”
A new career-high in PTS for Isaiah Stewart 🚨
— NBA (@NBA) January 8, 2026
29 and counting for the @DetroitPistons…
DET lead late in the 4Q… watch here: https://t.co/bygPQHFdDr pic.twitter.com/qr2YaMFHGo
Trailing 77-76 after three quarters of play, Stewart connected three times from inside the paint during the fourth quarter. He hit back-to-back buckets to give the Pistons a 92-85 lead with 6:09 remaining in the game. His next basket made it 101-87 game with 2:11 left in the contest.
Stewart grabbed three rebounds, blocked two shots and handed out an assist in 30 minutes of action.
“Having Cade out, he scores it. That’s our head of the snake on offense. I just came in thinking, hey we got to get it done. We don’t know how we’re going to get it done, but we got to get it done. It ended up being me scoring 30 points. I’ll take that.”
Stewart’s previous career high was a 26-point effort at Memphis earlier this season. With Wednesday’s total, he has reached the 20-point plateau three times this season. This after not scoring 20 or more in a single game in 2024-25. The 6-foot-8 center reached the 20-point mark on six occasions prior to this season.
In December, Stewart blocked 28 shots for a 2.2 per game average. He finished with a career-high five rejections against Atlanta on December 1. He posted two or more blocks eight times in the month.
Stewart currently ranks third in the NBA with 2.03 blocks per game.
The win was the third straight for the Pistons (28-9) who are atop the Eastern Conference.
Stewart’s career night comes two days after Jalen Pickett (Aquinas) scored 29 in Denver’s win over Philadelphia. Pickett had seven points, four rebounds and two assists in Denver’s 114-110 win over Boston on Wednesday.
Leave a Reply