{"id":247428,"date":"2026-04-26T17:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/247428\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:01:07","slug":"magic-beat-pistons-for-2-1-series-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/247428\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic beat Pistons for 2-1 series lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The\u00a0Orlando Magic<\/a>\u00a0tend not to do things the easy way.<\/p>\n

They lost seven consecutive games in March to put their playoff chances in peril. They needed to survive a play-in tournament elimination game \u2014 one that many thought they would lose \u2014 just to get into the playoffs. And on Saturday, they wasted a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter and found themselves trailing\u00a0the Detroit Pistons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In response, they simply did what they do best.<\/p>\n

\u201cFight,\u201d center Wendell Carter Jr. said.<\/p>\n

Fight, they did, and the Magic found a way. They outscored Detroit 9-0 in the final 2:51, getting the last punch and the last word in\u00a0what became a 113-105 win<\/a>\u00a0that gave eighth-seeded Orlando a 2-1 lead over the top-seeded Pistons in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a good job of staying poised … not getting rattled,\u201d said Magic forward Paolo Banchero, who finished on the cusp of a triple-double with 25 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists. \u201cVery composed from the team, and we got the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banchero had the game-sealing shot, too \u2014 a 3-pointer that hit the rim, bounced a couple stories into the air, then dropped through the net with the softest of swishes with about 40 seconds left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe basketball gods don’t reward hesitation,\u201d Banchero said. \u201cThat one, I didn’t hesitate and they blessed me with that make. A funny shot, but a big shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detroit probably had one of those coming.<\/p>\n

The Pistons, who trailed for most of the game, went on a 26-8 run in about six minutes to turn a 96-79 deficit into a 105-104 lead on a free throw by Cade Cunningham \u2014 who led all scorers with 27 points. Cunningham and Tobias Harris combined for 22 points in that spurt, one where Detroit shot 9-for-11 from the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor parts of the game, we did some good things,\u201d Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. \u201cBut down the stretch, they made some tough shots that made it hard for us to finish it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He’s half-right. The other half was this \u2014 Detroit made no more shots.<\/p>\n

When the 26-8 run ended, all nine of the game’s remaining points were scored by the Magic. A team that seems to love being in the basketball pressure-cooker found a way, once again.<\/p>\n

A 2-1 series lead going into another home game on Monday is Orlando’s reward, with the No. 8 seed now two wins away from an upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot to clean up as well,\u201d Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The\u00a0Orlando Magic\u00a0tend not to do things the easy way. They lost seven consecutive games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,2205,7642,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-247428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-michigan","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247428","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=247428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}