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Ohm Youngmisuk
Multiple Authors
ORLANDO, Fla. — With the Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic locked in a grinding defensive duel, Desmond Bane came off a screen and launched a 3 from 29 feet out with seven left on the shot clock and less than 80 seconds left in Game 4.
The ball banked high off the glass and in, giving Orlando a six-point lead. Bane immediately put both his hands together in prayer. The shot was the dagger Orlando needed to beat Detroit 94-88 on Monday night, and push the Pistons to the brink of elimination.
If Detroit is going to save their 60-win season, they’ll need some divine help. The eighth-seeded Magic, who have suddenly turned their season around, are up 3-1 in this best-of-7 series and playing with a ton of confidence and physicality.
The Pistons now have to win three straight starting on Wednesday at home in Game 5 in order to advance.
“Too many turnovers bro,” said Pistons center Jalen Duren, whose team committed 20 turnovers that led to 23 Magic points. “They are scoring off of our mistakes. The whole series we just been shooting ourselves in the foot. We got to clean that up man.
“I still think we’re the better team, top to bottom. But we just got to … we can’t keep digging ourselves in the hole. Then we are fighting ourselves, that team, the refs … we just got to be better.”
The Pistons are the third team to win 60 games in the regular season but trail 3-1 in its opening series according to ESPN Research. Each of the previous two teams – the 2011 San Antonio Spurs and 2007 Dallas Mavericks — extended their series but lost in six games.
“We’re going to come out punching,” Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of the Pistons in Game 5. “That I promise you. We’re not going to lay down for anybody. It’s one game at home and that’s what your focus is on, is you got to go home and win one game. And that’s where our mindset is.”
Cade Cunningham, the Pistons’ franchise point guard who had 25 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks but eight turnovers, was asked if he’s shocked that the Pistons are on the verge of elimination in the first round.
“I mean, going into [this series I’d be] shocked,” said Cunningham, who has 24 turnovers combined in his last three games, the most in a three-game span in the playoffs since turnovers were first officially tracked in 1977-78. “But with the way that we’ve been playing, that stuff’s not good enough to win games and this league’s too good.
“They’re a good team, so they’re outrebounding, turning me over. We haven’t hit enough shots. Our defense hasn’t caught its footing, so it’s not shocking that we’re losing the games playing like that.”
Both teams struggled to shoot, combining to make an unsightly total of 15-of-65 from behind the arc. The Magic and Pistons chucked several airballs from 3-point range. Inside the paint, both teams might as well had been engaged in hand-to-hand combat at times as they played as if the series was on the line.
Detroit blocked 18 shots and still lost because it shot 37.8% from the field and couldn’t protect the ball. Orlando also outrebounded Detroit, 52-49, with every rebound down the stretch vital.
“We got to take care of the basketball,” Pistons forward Tobias Harris said. “We got to win the rebounding battle. And we just got to be in the moment of what this is. This is playoff basketball. We got to be more ready to just go out there and scrap like we need it.
“We’re a little too casual. Everybody knows that. In our locker room, we have to be better.”
Orlando threatened to run away with the game, exploding out of the tip to a 17-5 lead. Detroit, though, countered with a 33-11 run that gave them a 10-point lead with 7:14 to go in the second quarter. But it was a two-point game at the half and the Magic led by three late in the fourth despite playing the entire quarter without Franz Wagner, who sat out the quarter with right calf soreness. Wagner told reporters afterward that he plans to undergo an MRI on Tuesday.
Without Wagner, Bane (22 points) stepped up and banked the 3 that pushed Detroit closer to elimination. As Bane ran back down the floor, he looked toward courtside seats where Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., his former Memphis Grizzlies teammates who came to support Bane, smiled and celebrated the big shot.
Earlier in the season, Bane buried a twisting, fallaway winning 3-pointer over Toumani Camara’s outstretched hand at the horn to beat Portland with his first career buzzer-beater on Nov. 10. That helped ignite a run to the NBA Cup semifinals back in December.
The Magic, though, struggled after that with injuries and inconsistency. But ever since beating Charlotte in the final Play-In game in Orlando on Apr. 17, the Magic have played like the team they were designed to be. They’ve been stifling and physical on defense, opportunistic on offense, confident and have had clutch, and even lucky shot-making like Bane’s banked 3 and Paolo Banchero’s late 3 that bounced high off the rim and in in the Magic’s 113-105 Game 3 win.
It may take even more to finish off the Pistons in Detroit.
“his a team that won 60 games,” Bane said. “I’m sure they will not blink an eye about being able to win three games in a row. They did it multiple times during the regular season. We are going to have to come ready to play. I’m excited about the challenge.”
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