The Orlando Magic looked like they were on the way to becoming the seventh No.8 seed to eliminate a No.1 seed in the NBA playoffs when they took a 60-38 halftime lead over the Detroit Pistons. The Magic even scored the first basket of the third quarter to build their biggest lead of the game at 62-38. But as they say, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.
Orlando had a historically bad second half, blowing that lead and losing 93-79. At one point, the Magic missed 23 consecutive shots, including 13 3-pointers. They finished the game missing 27 out of their final 28 field goal attempts and got outscored 31-8 in the fourth quarter in one of the most infamous meltdowns of all-time.
Advertisement
Fox Sports’ Nick Wright couldn’t believe his eyes when he got hold of the Magic’s second-half shot chart.
“I mean…how is this possible?” Wright tweeted about the Magic’s 4-37 field goal shooting in the second half.
Orlando makes history the wrong way
With the season on the line, the Pistons fought back at the start of the second half. But it seemed like the Magic were ready to take their best shot. With 4:14 left in the third quarter, Orlando was still up 70-54. They did not score a field goal until the 2:24 mark of the fourth quarter when Paolo Banchero had a driving dunk. That basket turned out to be their only field goal in the final period, when they shot just 1-20 from the floor.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, Detroit erased a 24-point deficit after the break and dominated Orlando 55–17 the rest of the way, marking the biggest comeback by a road team facing elimination since the 1996–97 season. Watching it in real time was crazier and unbelievable for everyone, including Wright.
“19 second-half points (a playoff record for any half) in a closeout game at home when you were up 20+ is one of the craziest occurrences in recent NBA history. We had a team down 50 in the first half of an elimination game yesterday, and that’s not 10% as painful/insane as this,” Nick added in another tweet.
Worse than the Hawks getting blown out by 51 points
Last Thursday night, the Atlanta Hawks suffered another historically horrible loss at the hands of the New York Knicks. Down 2-3 in their own best-of-seven series, the Hawks scored only 15 first-quarter points while giving up 40 to the Knicks. New York went on to pad the lead to as high as 61 before finishing the game and the series with a 51-point victory.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, the series isn’t over for the Magic. Orlando took a 3-1 cushion going to Game 4, so even if they lost Games 5 and 6, they still have one final chance to make history in Game 7. However, it’s arguably going to be their hardest game of the year.
The Magic won’t just be dealing with a surging Pistons squad; they’ll also have to handle the challenge of playing in Detroit. But as if those are not tough enough for Orlando, they will have to recover from that historic collapse. Sure, it was just one game, but with Game 7 on Sunday, it’s going to be hard to take that kind of loss out of their system.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on May 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.