The Magic get their first road playoff victory since 2020 and take a 1-0 series lead.
On what might otherwise be shrugged off as “Blowout Sunday,” the Orlando Magic and the Detroit Pistons did their best to keep their series opener intriguing.
Sure, the Magic won by 11 and went wire-to-wire.
But it was the closest of the day’s four Game 1 clashes. And when the No. 8 seed grabs a 1-0 series lead on the conference champion’s court – Orlando’s first road playoff victory since 2020 – yawning is not an option.
The Pistons and the Magic really aren’t so different in timelines and talent. It’s just that Detroit kept going vertical this season while Orlando veered horizontal. Seven spots in the final East standing meant little in the Magic’s 112-101 upset victory at Little Caesars Arena.
Here are four takeaways:
1. Magic? Orlando’s revival looks like sorcery
Reports of the Magic’s demise, sparked by their embarrassing loss in Game 82 to a lineup of Celtics leftovers and fanned against Philadelphia Wednesday in the East’s 7-8 SoFi Play-In Tournament game, suddenly seem exaggerated. Orlando played like its best self Friday to oust Charlotte for the No. 8 playoff berth, then took Game 1 over Detroit as if nary a discouraging word had been uttered about them.
In a span of 72 hours, all sorts of negative possibilities that looked to be on the table – a coaching change, addition-by-subtraction personnel moves –vanished, to the point you couldn’t even find the table. The smackdown of the Hornets was one thing, but going into Detroit to beat the 60-victory Pistons was a whole ’nother level.
The Magic hadn’t held an opponent to so few points since early March. They gave up only six offensive boards to the Pistons, who averaged twice that. Coach Jamahl Mosley’s players had a 20-point edge scoring in the paint and were so pleased to meet the intensity and aggression of the moment they weren’t even all that bothered by getting doubled-up from the foul line, shooting 19 free throws to Detroit’s 38.
A group presumed to be wearing toe tags inside their sneakers just a few days ago now looks very much alive. Alive!
“This is a new season,” Mosley said. “Whatever story you told yourself during the regular season, that story is done. How we come together, how we play with poise, how we defend at a high level, how we communicate with each other, that’s a part of this story now.”
Said team leader Paolo Banchero: “There’s nothing you can do to go back and change what happened. We’re here in the playoffs and we have a chance to do what we set out to do since October.”
2. Pistons feel top-seed disadvantages
Clinching the East’s No. 1 seed early, it had been a while since Detroit felt any gotta-win urgency. It hadn’t played at all in a week and, due to the Play-In, it didn’t learn its opponent until Friday.
This was a situation ripe for the ol’ rest vs. rust dilemma, and the Magic’s quick 15-5 lead confirmed it.
“We came out a little too tight, lax, whatever the word is,” said guard Cade Cunningham. “Maybe both for some of us. … We gave them life early on and then we had to deal with that for the rest of the game.”
The Pistons never stopped chasing, but they also never caught the visitors. Cunningham scored 39 points and Tobias Harris got 17 on 5-for-15 shooting, but they were the only two on their team to score 10 points or more. The halfcourt offense was especially clunky – take away Detroit’s fast-break and second-chance points and it managed just 60 vs. Orlando’s chosen defense.
Rusty. Stagnant. Lapsing into hero ball. All figure to be improved by Game 2 on Wednesday (7 ET, ESPN).
3. Banchero and Wagner, not ‘or’
Franz Wagner gets to the rim for a big dunk.
One of the recurring rumbles about Orlando during this season that never really launched was speculation that Banchero and Wagner couldn’t thrive long-term playing alongside each other. Too much overlap in their ball-dependent styles, some suggested. Overlaps in their skill sets.
Close enough in age to suggest a little sibling rivalry.
Whatever doubts Boston’s pair of stellar forwards – Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown – put to rest by sheer force of winning, Banchero and Wagner appeared to inherit. So much so that the former reacted angrily when asked yet again about the dynamic in December.
“I think that’s bull—-,” Banchero told The Athletic then. “People are going to say whatever they want to say about me, Franz and whoever. But we know that we’re at our strongest when both of us are out there on the floor.”
Often it’s been hard to tell. Banchero played 74 games this season, Wagner just 34 due to injuries. Their 429 minutes together ranked 27th among the Magic’s two-man combos. The tandem’s net rating of 4.5 was so-so for two projected young stars toting maximum contract extensions.
In this one, though, they didn’t just co-exist, they co-romped. Banchero and guard Jalen Suggs did the early scoring damage. Wagner got 11 of his 19 in the fourth to fend off the Pistons. And they both were on the court together a lot, finishing comfortably in the plus column.
4. Step back for Duren
While he was busy Sunday night, the NBA released the finalists for its annual awards, and Pistons big man Jalen Duren as expected is one of three vying for the Most Improved Player Award. The chiseled 6-foot-10 center is worthy, earning his first All-Star appearance while upping his production to 19.5 ppg, 10.5 rpg and 3.8 offensive rebounds per game.
But Duren was more invisible than improved in Game 1, chipping in just eight points and seven boards in 33 minutes. He had no more impact than a year ago in his postseason debut against New York (six rebounds, seven points).
Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff credited the Magic for crowding Duren in the paint to limit his touches – he got only four shots, compared to the 12.4 he averaged after the All-Star break. Cunningham said he and his other teammates have to deliver cleaner passes inside to Duren.
Either way, considering how Duren helped carry the Pistons through Cunningham’s collapsed-lung absence late in the season, the MIP finalist needs to improve again.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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