{"id":1902773,"date":"2026-04-25T20:18:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T17:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1902773"},"modified":"2026-04-25T20:18:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T17:18:53","slug":"desmond-bane-franz-wagner-come-up-big-as-magic-take-2-1-series-lead-over-pistons-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1902773","title":{"rendered":"Desmond Bane, Franz Wagner come up big as Magic take 2-1 series lead over Pistons: Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Orlando Magic can breathe a sigh of relief now.<\/p>\n

The Detroit Pistons pulled together a big fourth-quarter rally, erasing a 17-point deficit with 3:14 remaining in Game 3 to take a one-point lead, silencing Magic fans inside the Kia Center. But the Magic rose to the moment after relinquishing a lead to the top-seeded Pistons.<\/p>\n

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With the Magic trailing by a point, Franz Wagner scored five straight points to give the Magic a 109-105 lead with 1:46 remaining. And with a little breathing room, Paolo Banchero got a friendly bounce on a dagger, top-of-the-key 3-pointer that sealed a thrilling 113-105 win to give the Magic a 2-1 series lead.<\/p>\n

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Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 27 points while Banchero and Desmond Bane tallied 25 points apiece for eighth-seeded Orlando.<\/p>\n

The Magic got off to a hot start, scoring baskets in the paint early and role players finding a rhythm, but the Pistons did enough to stay within reach as the two teams exchanged seven leads in the first quarter. Jalen Suggs, who scored 12 first-half points on 4-of-7 shooting, provided Orlando with an offensive spark alongside Bane\u2019s hot shooting from beyond the 3-point line.<\/p>\n

The Magic began the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run and went ahead by 15 points in a game that appeared to be over. That was until Detroit\u2019s Tobias Harris and Cunningham orchestrated the run to catch Orlando and briefly take the lead.<\/p>\n

Game 4 is Monday at 8 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

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Desmond Bane comes up big<\/h2>\n

The Orlando Magic paid a massive price to bring aboard Desmond Bane in a trade.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, when the team needed him desperately, he delivered.<\/p>\n

Bane scored 25 points, making his first six 3-point attempts, to give the Magic an outside shooting boost. By making those early 3s, he likely exerted a steadying influence on his young teammates in a critical game.<\/p>\n

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Orlando held an 87-79 lead going into the fourth quarter, but it felt like a precarious lead. That\u2019s where Bane came to the fore again. On the Magic\u2019s first possession of the quarter, he sank a stepback 3, extending the lead to 90-79. Two Magic possessions later, Bane drove to the hoop for a layup, and the Magic\u2019s lead was up to 92-79.<\/p>\n

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During the 2025 offseason, Orlando acquired Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies by trading Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, the 16th pick in the 2025 draft, a first-round pick in 2026, a first-round pick in 2028, swap rights to a first-round draft pick in 2029 (top-two protected) and a first-round pick in 2030 to the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n

Bane had 17 points in Orlando\u2019s Game 1 victory, but he went 7-of-20 from the field. He struggled in the Game 2 loss, compiling only 12 points on 2-of-11 shooting.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, however, he was much more efficient. He finished with 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting, including 7-of-9 shooting from 3. The Magic\u2019s playoff record for made 3s in a game had been seven, set by Dennis Scott on May 25, 1995, against the Indiana Pacers. Now, Bane and Scott hold the record in tandem.<\/p>\n

Bane was a salve for a Magic team that, despite returning to Orlando with the series tied 1-1, had struggled to hit its open and wide-open 3s early in the series and much of the season. \u2014\u00a0Josh Robbins<\/i><\/p>\n

Pistons fall short late<\/h2>\n

The Pistons came storming back from a 17-point deficit to take a 105-104 lead, but it wasn\u2019t enough as Orlando eventually walked Detroit down to take a 2-1 series lead.<\/p>\n

It seemed the Pistons were on the brink of another game-defining run, but they just couldn\u2019t consistently hit shots or get the stops they needed. Jalen Duren eventually fouled out with just eight points and nine boards on 3-of-10 shooting.<\/p>\n

Cunningham and Harris were orchestrating the late-game run. They took turns hitting clutch buckets, with Cunningham scoring 12 of his 27 in the final frame and Harris adding 10 of his 23.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s less than ideal that it took a huge run to get back into the game. Monday is as close to a must-win as you can get if the Pistons hope to head back to Detroit with the series tied. \u2014 Hunter Patterson<\/i><\/p>\n

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Franz Wagner finds it from distance<\/h2>\n

Entering this season, Franz Wagner\u2019s long-range shooting motion was said to be broken.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, when his team needed it most, it was just fine.<\/p>\n

With Orlando clinging to a 106-105 lead \u2014 in the midst of a 26-10 Detroit run that had turned the game on its ear \u2014 Wagner sank a 3 from the left wing with 1:46 remaining in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The trey was probably the most significant basket of Wagner\u2019s NBA career.<\/p>\n

It propelled Orlando to the Game 3 win, and it staved off one of the great fourth-quarter playoff collapses in recent memory after an emphatic Detroit comeback.<\/p>\n

During the 2023-24 season, Wagner\u2019s 3-point percentage dipped to 28.1 percent. In the 2024-25 season, as a strange hitch became more apparent in his shooting stroke, he made only 29.5 percent of his attempts.<\/p>\n

This year, he brought his percentage back up to 34.5 percent.<\/p>\n

He was 1 for 5 from beyond the arc in the series \u2014 until he hit his crucial 3 late in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The trey might have saved the game, and the series, for Orlando, and it could be the kind of confidence-boosting play that could propel Wagner to new individual heights. \u2014 Robbins<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic can breathe a sigh of relief now. The Detroit Pistons pulled together a big fourth-quarter rally, erasing a 17-point deficit with 3:14 remaining in Game 3 to take a one-point lead, silencing Magic fans inside the Kia Center. But the Magic rose to the moment after relinquishing a lead to the top-seeded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1902773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1902773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1902773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1902773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1902773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}