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The No. 8-seeded Orlando Magic took a 3-1 series lead on the No. 1 Detroit Pistons yesterday. It was 23 years to the day that the Doc Rivers-coached and Tracy McGrady-led No. 8-seeded Magic took a 3-1 series lead on the No. 1 Pistons, led by Chauncey Billups. The Pistons won the next three games by 61 total points to advance in seven. Will history repeat itself?
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Pistons Stalling
This dunk 🤝 the Pistons’ playoff
On the way to the Magic’s series lead with a throwback 94-88 victory, something biblical happened in the fourth quarter. In a game of sloppiness, a moment so clean and violent occurred at the rim. Magic wing Jamal Cain was bringing the ball up the floor, fighting pressure from Cade Cunningham. He turned the corner on Cunningham about 40 feet from the basket, and had a straight line drive to the rim on the left side.
Cain took two dribbles, saw Jalen Duren at the rim, gathered his two steps and took off for the dunk of the playoffs. It might even be the dunk of the year, considering it’s in the postseason against a 60-win team the Magic, who everyone stopped believing in, might upset.
Watch this dunk, and then look at the staredown by Cain.
That was a brilliant baseline replay angle and you can see all of the power behind the dunk. You also see the great reaction from Cain as Duren goes flying out of the picture. Check out the broadcast angle of this dunk.
We have a lot to discuss with the Pistons and what the Magic have done to them, but we must hit this dunk with a B.I.D.S. (Bounce Index Dunk System) score.
- Convulsion/jump scare: 10/10. As Austin Rivers said on the broadcast, “I didn’t know he had that in him!” This was out of nowhere and an incredible moment.
- Bench reaction: 9/10. Didn’t get a great shot of them during the broadcast, but when the Magic came back down the floor to play defense, guys on the bench were still jumping up and down.
- Dunker reaction: 10/10. Cain stared him right down after he landed following a dramatic scissors kick. He almost landed like a superhero before the mean mugging commenced.
- Where is the damn replay? 10/10. We had to wait 22 excruciating seconds before there was a stoppage in play to show the replays.
- Witness protection scale: 10/10. Look at the second GIF again. Duren slides on his butt from under the hoop to almost the Pistons’ bench. It was like the momentum of the violence was trying to take him out of the game.
Total BIDS score for Cain: 49/50. A better shot of the bench turns this into a perfect score. This was shades of Tracy McGrady dunking on Shawn Bradley.
Cain’s play perfectly encapsulates what the Pistons have looked like against the Magic. Unprepared for what’s about to happen. Virtually helpless to stop it from happening. Not bringing enough energy and execution to prevent it in the first place. And there’s just no way to guarantee they’ll be able to answer on the offensive end of the floor because the regular season concerns about this team being unreliable on offense have been magnified in the first round.
The Pistons are on the brink of elimination. They can absolutely still come back and win this series. They have Game 5 at home and then just have to win in Orlando to force a Game 7 at home. There’s a blueprint for pulling this off. I’m just not sure how you can trust they’ll follow it.
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We mentioned in yesterday’s Bounce that Cunningham has a playoff turnover problem. He had eight more turnovers in Game 4. That’s 27 turnovers in four games so far. That’s now 59 turnovers in 10 career playoff games. And in this series, he has 12 turnovers just in the first quarters. He’s had four turnovers in each of the last two opening periods.
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Detroit is shooting 41.9 percent from the field and down 3-1 to a team shooting under 40 percent for the series (38.7!). The Pistons have made just 27.5 percent of their 3-pointers. They don’t have anybody to help create offense with Cade, so he’s forced to do too much. Jalen Duren has played so poorly that I’m now wondering if the Pistons can avoid paying him the max in restricted free agency.
This front office wasn’t aggressive in adding offensive help at the trade deadline, and now it finds itself on the brink of embarrassment and elimination.
The Last 24
🏀 Not an actual fix. The league can keep trying to fix the lottery. But they won’t address why tanking happens.
🚀 Perseverance. Reed Sheppard struggled immensely as a rookie. He learned to block out the noise.
🔥 Sticking around. Pat Riley had another legendary news conference. “I’m not going to retire.”
🔊 “NBA Daily.” Watch and listen to a recap of last night’s games. Including how the Pistons are in trouble.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Debate Over
Flagg wins closest rookie race in 24 years
The most highly debated Rookie of the Year race in years is officially over with Dallas Mavericks phenom Cooper Flagg winning the 2025-26 award. Flagg edged out Charlotte Hornets rookie and former Duke roommate Kon Knueppel with one of the closest voting finishes in the last 25 years. Flagg received 56 of the 100 first place votes, and Knueppel received the others. Just 26 voting points separated the two.
Since the Rookie of the Year voting went to this format in 2002-03, this is the second-closest race for the award. Toronto Raptors star Scottie Barnes edged out Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley in the 2021-22 ROY race by just 15 voting points, as he received 48 first place votes compared to 43 for Mobley. The other closest Rookie of the Year races in this era of voting to round out the top five are:
- Amar’e Stoudemire over Yao Ming (53 points difference) in 2002-03.
- Emeka Okafor over Ben Gordon (71 points difference) in 2004-05.
- LeBron James over Carmelo Anthony (73 points difference) in 2003-04.
Flagg started out the season struggling as Jason Kidd tried to expand his understanding of the floor by playing him at point guard. But it wasn’t long before Flagg figured things out enough to compete at the position, before Kidd turned the keys over to more natural point guards. Flagg still did plenty of playmaking and scoring. Knueppel was having a tremendous start to his rookie season, as well, and started helping turn the Hornets into a winner in December and January.
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Around the time in mid-February when Flagg went down with a foot sprain and missed eight straight games, Knueppel became the betting favorite for the award. He never really had a lull in his season, and the consistency and historic efficiency for a rookie was helped by the Hornets playing in meaningful games. Flagg came back and struggled with his efficiency, but made an historic push in the final stretch of the season. That included 96 points in a two-game span, tying Wilt Chamberlain as the only rookie to score 95 points or more in a two-game span.
Now the Mavericks will hope for more lottery luck in this draft to put another top-flight prospect around Flagg, as they build this roster out with him as the leader for the foreseeable future.
What to Watch
Denver on the brink
Nuggets 125, Wolves 113: Minnesota leads series 3-2. (Game 6 is Thursday.)
Three key points for Game 5: Read the takeaways from The Athletic. Here are mine:
- Key 1: It was chippy! The crowd was screaming like it was a Broncos game. Jonas Valanciunas and Nikola Jokić got into it with Jaden McDaniels, Ayo Dosunmu and others. And even Christian Braun was talking trash in the second half.
- Key 2: The Nuggets forced so many turnovers. Some of it was Wolves’ sloppiness, but Denver was all over Minnesota. Thirty-five points off 25 turnovers and 16 of them were steals.
- Key 3: Big game from the role players. Eighteen points, five assists and three steals from Cam Johnson; 20 points, three steals and three blocks from Spencer Jones. Huge efforts.
Who played huge in this game? Jokić, obviously. Struggled all series against Minnesota, but he had 27 points on 9-of-15 shooting to go with 16 assists and 10 boards. Even had two blocks.
Who came up short for the Wolves? Rudy Gobert. Many Wolves did but Gobert had three points, seven rebounds and finally got lit up by Jokić in this series.
How concerned should the Wolves be? Very. They are still down Anthony Edwards (week-to-week) and Donte DiVincenzo (season). If you don’t close it out at home, now you have to win Game 7 in Denver (again) but without your best player.
PPM: 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 for Denver | 🚨🚨🚨🚨 for Minnesota.
Thunder 131, Suns 122: OKC 🧹 Phoenix
- Was this the expected outcome? This is how it was supposed to be. This Thunder team is 12-0 in the first round in the last three years with a 17.4-point margin of victory. My goodness.
- What’s next for the Thunder? They await the winner of the Lakers and Rockets. The Lakers are up 3-1 and could get Austin Reaves back for Game 5. It should be over in Los Angeles.
- Who are Phoenix’s big free agents this summer? Mark Williams (restricted), Colin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin, Amir Coffey.
- What’s the draft situation? Their pick (16) goes to Memphis. They have the 47th pick.
- What’s the pressing need? Offensive creator to help Devin Booker and a reliable interior presence. Re-signing Gillespie to a team-friendly deal is big too.
- Overall grade for the Suns’ season: A-
Now let’s do a quick preview of today’s Game 2s! (All times Eastern.)
76ers at Celtics: Game 5, 7 p.m. (ESPN) | Celtics lead 3-1
- Something to look for: With Joel Embiid back, how many shots will Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe get in the offense? Need a big output to hang with Boston to avoid elimination.
Hawks at Knicks: Game 5, 8 p.m. (NBC/Peacock) | Series tied 2-2
- Something to look for: How do the Hawks keep it close enough to out-execute the Knicks at the end again? Will they knock down enough 3-pointers to remain in the mix? Literal Hall of Famer David Aldridge will be discussing the game live!
Blazers at Spurs: Game 5, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN) | Spurs lead 3-1
- Something to look for: It’s the first time Victor Wembanyama and his cohort gets a chance to eliminate someone. They’re at home. Can they finish the job or does the pressure mount?