Detroit’s Cade Cunningham scored a playoff career-high 39 points and Tobias Harris added 17 for the Pistons, but the rest of their teammates were quiet offensively.
Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to help seal the victory for the Magic, who never trailed. Orlando’s Desmond Bane and Wendell Carter scored 17 points each, and Jalen Suggs had 16.
The Pistons haven’t advanced beyond the first round in the postseason in 18 years. The Magic haven’t since 2010.
Orlando looked ready and Detroit looked rusty early.
The Magic, coming off a rout of Charlotte in a play-in game on Friday, led, 18-5, midway through the first quarter after holding the Pistons to 1-of-6 shooting with four turnovers in their first game in a week.
Detroit rallied to pull within 2 before Orlando closed with 6 straight points to lead, 35-27, after Banchero and Suggs combined to score 20 points.
The Magic led, 55-51, at halftime.
The Pistons came out flat in the second half and Orlando took advantage, scoring 8 of the first 9 points and prompting Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff to call a timeout.
Detroit scored 10 straight points and 13 of 15 to pull into a 65-all tie on Cunningham’s 3-pointer.
Banchero answered with a long jumper over Jalen Duren and Bane followed with a 3-pointer over Cunningham, leading to the Magic restoring a double-digit lead. Orlando led, 81-74, going into the fourth quarter.
No slow start for champions
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 25 points and the Thunder began their title defense with a 119-84 rout of the Suns in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series in Oklahoma City.
The reigning league MVP made just 5 of 18 field goals, but went 15 of 17 at the foul line before sitting out the fourth quarter.
Jalen Williams scored 22 points and Chet Holmgren added 16 for the top-seeded Thunder, who will host Game 2 on Wednesday.
Devin Booker scored 23 points and Dillon Brooks scored 18 on 6-of-22 shooting for the Suns, who shot 34.9 percent from the field.
Phoenix broke out to a 5-0 lead as the Thunder started cold following a week off, but Oklahoma City heated up quickly. Brooks was called for a flagrant-one foul in the first quarter for hitting Holmgren in the face. The Thunder went on a 12-2 surge after that to take a 24-14 lead.