{"id":1916010,"date":"2026-05-03T22:17:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1916010"},"modified":"2026-05-03T22:17:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:17:25","slug":"pistons-complete-3-1-series-comeback-against-magic-advance-to-east-semifinals-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1916010","title":{"rendered":"Pistons complete 3-1 series comeback against Magic, advance to East semifinals: Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris combined for 62 points, and the Detroit Pistons used a dominant defensive performance to close out the Orlando Magic with a 116-94 home win in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference first-round series Sunday. The Pistons came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Magic in the first round of the 2003 playoffs and did so again Sunday, 23 years later.<\/p>\n

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Detroit will meet the winner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors in the East semifinals.<\/p>\n

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Cunningham scored a team-high 32 points with 12 assists, becoming just the second Pistons player after Isiah Thomas to record at least a 32-12 playoff game. Harris scored 30 points with nine rebounds, and Jalen Duren added 15 points and a game-high 15 rebounds for Detroit, which shot 51 percent from the field and 48.5 percent on 3-pointers. The Pistons held the Magic to 41 percent shooting despite a game-high 38 points from Paolo Banchero.<\/p>\n

Here are some takeaways from Game 7.<\/p>\n

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Historic comeback is Pistons\u2019 first series win since 2008<\/h2>\n

The Pistons have believed they were the better team all series long, even when they were facing a 3-1 deficit. And on Sunday, they finally proved it.<\/p>\n

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They stopped giving the Magic easy buckets from points off turnovers and second-chance points, forcing Orlando to try to score in the halfcourt. Outside of Paolo Banchero, who held up his end of the bargain, the Magic had no quality source of offense.<\/p>\n

Detroit allowed 15 second-chance points and 15 points off turnovers. Still not where the Pistons should hope to be, but it was enough to stifle the Magic\u2019s offense and not give them any extra momentum.<\/p>\n

Harris had his most important \u2014 and impactful \u2014 game since returning for his second stint in Detroit. For as much discussion as there\u2019s been around the Pistons needing a true No. 2 scorer alongside Cunningham, Harris stepped up in Game 7. He poured in 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting, was 5-of-7 from 3 and made all three of his free throws. Harris made big shot after big shot as Little Caesars Arena showered him with nothing but love en route to Detroit\u2019s first playoff series win since 2008. \u2014 Hunter Patterson<\/em><\/p>\n

Magic missed Franz Wagner<\/h2>\n

The Pistons earned this series victory because of Cunningham\u2019s excellence, their ability to match the Magic\u2019s physicality, and a stifling defense led by Ausar Thompson.<\/p>\n

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But would the Magic have won either Game 5 or Game 6 if Franz Wagner had not been sidelined by a right calf strain and advanced to the second round? I think the Magic would have won at least one of those games if Wagner had been healthy.<\/p>\n

When the Magic and their fans look back on this series years from now, they\u2019ll remember the second half of Game 6 at home, but more broadly, they\u2019ll remember this as the series they could have won if Wagner had remained healthy. \u2014 Josh Robbins<\/em><\/p>\n

Orlando needs an offensive orchestrator<\/h2>\n

This series \u2014 and especially Game 2\u2019s third quarter, Game 6\u2019s second half and much of Game 7 \u2014 laid bare the Magic\u2019s need for a primary ballhandler. Banchero and Wagner often serve as de facto point guards, but who else can the Magic go to? Anthony Black has the potential to be the team\u2019s point guard of the future, but he hasn\u2019t received many reps in a more traditional point guard role to develop in that role.<\/p>\n

The team signed Tyus Jones using its non-taxpayer mid-level exception last summer to give the team an effective traditional point guard, but Jones\u2019 struggles were severe.<\/p>\n

The Magic will need to address this area this offseason. \u2014\u00a0Robbins<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris combined for 62 points, and the Detroit Pistons used a dominant defensive performance to close out the Orlando Magic with a 116-94 home win in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference first-round series Sunday. The Pistons came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Magic in the first round of […]<\/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-1916010","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\/1916010","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=1916010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1916010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1916010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1916010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}