{"id":631314,"date":"2026-04-26T04:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631314\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T04:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:12:10","slug":"magic-survive-a-late-collapse-rally-past-pistons-for-a-2-1-series-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631314\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic survive a late collapse, rally past Pistons for a 2-1 series lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Orlando<\/p>\n

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) celebrates with teammates guard Jalen Suggs, left, and center Wendell Carter Jr. after sinking a 3-point shot against the Detroit Pistons during the closing moments of the second half in Game 3 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Orlando, Fla.<\/p>\n

John Raoux\/AP<\/p>\n

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane each scored 25 points, and the Orlando Magic blew a 17-point fourth-quarter lead before rallying to beat the Detroit Pistons 113-105 on Saturday for a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Banchero had 12 rebounds and nine assists. Franz Wagner scored 17 points for Orlando, which got 15 from Jalen Suggs and a 14-point, 17-rebound game from Wendell Carter Jr.<\/p>\n

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Cade Cunningham scored 27 for Detroit, which trailed 96-79 with 8:34 left \u2014 then outscored the Magic 26-8 over the next six minutes to grab the lead. But the Pistons, who got 23 points from Tobias Harris, couldn\u2019t hold on.<\/p>\n

Game 4 is Monday night in Orlando.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the 13th time since 1984, when the NBA went to the 16-team format, that a No. 8 seed has taken a 2-1 lead in a first-round series over a No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

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Of the previous 12, five finished off the upset. Those teams: Miami in 2023, Philadelphia in 2012, Memphis in 2011, Golden State in 2007 and New York in 1999. And that doesn\u2019t include Denver\u2019s upset of Seattle in 1994, the first 8-over-1 series win in NBA history.<\/p>\n

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The Magic \u2014 who had to win an elimination game at home just over a week ago to escape the play-in tournament \u2014 are trying to be the next name on that list.<\/p>\n

PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 42 points in a brilliant shooting performance, Ajay Mitchell added 15 in place of the injured Jalen Williams and Oklahoma City beat Phoenix to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference first-round series.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander \u2014 the league\u2019s reigning MVP \u2014 hit 15 of 18 shots on a variety of tough looks, frustrating a Suns defense that actually played decently for much of the game. Alex Caruso added 13 points off the bench while Chet Holmgren had 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.<\/p>\n

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The defending champion Thunder will go for the sweep in Game 4 on Monday in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Dillon Brooks led the Suns with 33 points on 11-of-21 shooting while Jalen Green added 26.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City took an 87-79 lead after three quarters and never trailed in the fourth. Gilegous-Alexander hit a difficult fallaway 19-foot jumper to put the Thunder up 102-87 with about five minutes left, deflating the Suns crowd and pretty much ending any hope for a comeback.<\/p>\n

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ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Karl-Anthony Towns had his first postseason triple-double, OG Anunoby scored 22 points and New York recovered after back-to-back losses to beat Atlanta, tying the Eastern Conference playoff series at 2-2.<\/p>\n

Towns had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. The 11th-year All-Star became the fourth Knicks player to record a triple-double in a playoff game, joining Walt Frazier, Dick McGuire and Josh Hart.<\/p>\n

The Knicks host Game 5 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, and the series is now guaranteed to return to Atlanta for Game 6 on Thursday.<\/p>\n

New York took control of the game midway through the first quarter and maintained the lead for the rest of the game. The Knicks held a 68-44 advantage at halftime and extended that lead to 20 points by the end of the third quarter.<\/p>\n

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New York, who had one-point losses in the previous two games, returned to form behind its core of Towns, Anunoby and Jalen Brunson, who scored 19 points.<\/p>\n

TIMBERWOLVES 112, NUGGETS 96<\/p>\n

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Ayo Dosunmu scored a career-high 43 points, stepping up after leg injuries to Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo with the highest-scoring playoff performance by a reserve in 50 years, and Minnesota beat Denver.<\/p>\n

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The Timberwolves took a 3-1 lead in the series in a game that ended with ejections of Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic and Minnesota\u2019s Julius Randle after Jokic became angry when Jaden McDaniels made a meaningless layup with 2.1 seconds remaining and confronted the Wolves\u2019 swingman near his bench.<\/p>\n

The story before that was Dosunmu, who had the best performance by a sub since Fred Brown scored 45 off the bench for Seattle in a 116-111 loss to Phoenix on April 15, 1976.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) celebrates with teammates guard Jalen Suggs, left, and center Wendell Carter Jr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[12993,96980,20453,64,63,8645,19704,3894,12989,305832,20447,71863,19711,305833,62609,20455,5669,43113,12831,87780,74678,20449,590,305831,3906,305834,146002,19710,145996,12841,85,19707,89730,305835],"class_list":{"0":"post-631314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ajay-mitchell","9":"tag-alex-caruso","10":"tag-anthony-edwards","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-ayo-dosunmu","14":"tag-cade-cunningham","15":"tag-chet-holmgren","16":"tag-desmond-bane","17":"tag-dick-mcguire","18":"tag-dillon-brooks","19":"tag-donte-divincenzo","20":"tag-franz-wagner","21":"tag-fred-brown","22":"tag-jaden-mcdaniels","23":"tag-jalen-brunson","24":"tag-jalen-green","25":"tag-jalen-suggs","26":"tag-jalen-williams","27":"tag-josh-hart","28":"tag-julius-randle","29":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","30":"tag-nba","31":"tag-nba-playoff-capsules","32":"tag-nikola-jokic","33":"tag-o-g-anunoby","34":"tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","35":"tag-paolo-banchero","36":"tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","37":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","38":"tag-sports","39":"tag-tobias-harris","40":"tag-walt-frazier","41":"tag-wendell-carter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}