{"id":246615,"date":"2026-04-25T21:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/246615\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T21:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:17:07","slug":"orlando-magic-pull-off-stunning-upset-lead-pistons-in-first-round-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/246615\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic Pull Off Stunning Upset, Lead Pistons in First-Round Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a stunning development, the 8th-seeded <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/orlando-magic\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"159\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orlando Magic<\/a> held on in a crazy finish to take a 2-1 series lead against the No. 1-seeded <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/detroit-pistons\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"900\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit Pistons<\/a>. The Magic got a masterful performance from Paolo Banchero, with a near triple-double. The Pistons\u2014who were never really challenged in the Eastern Conference all year long\u2014are now firmly on their heels.<\/p>\n<p>Banchero finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks.  The 23-year-old becomes the youngest player in NBA playoff history to record that set of numbers. He topped off his eye-popping effort with one of the craziest shots you\u2019ll see in these playoffs. <\/p>\n<p>Banchero was all class right after the game, however, not willing to chirp the Pistons, acknowledging respect for the top seed. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"pt\" dir=\"ltr\">Paolo Banchero depois do Magic abrir 2-1 contra o Pistons:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;N\u00f3s temos muito respeito por aqueles caras ali, mas tamb\u00e9m sabemos da nossa capacidade, do que n\u00f3s temos no nosso vesti\u00e1rio. N\u00e3o temos medo deles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WVzQZTe6aj\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/WVzQZTe6aj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matchup Brasil \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\udfc0 (@MatchupBR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MatchupBR\/status\/2048132361477353498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a lot of respect for those guys over there, but we also know our own capabilities, what we have in our locker room. We\u2019re not afraid of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not to be outdone, Desmond Bane also dropped 25 in this game, while hitting seven three-pointers. <\/p>\n<p>The Pistons\u2019 stars ran out of gas as the Magic take 2-1 series lead<\/p>\n<p>Truth be told, however, the Pistons didn\u2019t really deserve to be in this game. Save for a 20-8 fourth-quarter run to put a scare into the Magic, they had an awful game. And the team that led the East nearly wire-to-wire needs to quickly figure things out. <\/p>\n<p>The Pistons do not want to put their names among the ranks of the biggest NBA playoff upset victims of all-time. The iconic Dikembe Mutombo-led Denver Nuggets were the first No. 8 seed to upend a No. 1 when they shocked the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics in 1994. Only six times in NBA history has an 8th seed defeated a top seed in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>Cade Cunningham, Detroit\u2019s MVP, turned the ball over nine times, largely due to Orlando\u2019s full-court pressure and double-teams. Jalen Duran had another atrocious game\u2014he\u2019s averaging just 9.0 points and 8.2 rebounds in the series. That\u2019s down from his regular-season 19.5 ppg and 10.5 boards. <\/p>\n<p>Detroit\u2019s stars need to play like it\u2014just as Banchero and Bane did for Orlando today\u2014or the Pistons might run out of gas far sooner than expected. <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a stunning development, the 8th-seeded Orlando Magic held on in a crazy finish to take a 2-1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5834,139,141,1239,140],"class_list":["post-246615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}