{"id":249214,"date":"2026-04-28T05:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T05:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249214\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T05:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T05:40:10","slug":"sloppy-pistons-are-1-loss-from-becoming-7th-no-1-seed-to-lose-to-an-8-seed-in-the-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/249214\/","title":{"rendered":"Sloppy Pistons are 1 loss from becoming 7th No. 1 seed to lose to an 8 seed in the NBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Those 60 wins in the regular season and that No. 1 seed don\u2019t mean much for the Detroit Pistons right now.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re one loss away from a rare elimination.<\/p>\n

Only six No. 8 seeds have defeated a No. 1 in a playoff series in NBA history. It\u2019s happened only four times since the postseason was expanded to a best-of-seven series for all rounds in 2003.<\/p>\n

But the Pistons were sloppy with the ball and careless overall in a 94-88 loss<\/a> to the Orlando Magic on Monday night, falling behind 3-1 in their first-round Eastern Conference series.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to take care of the basketball. We have to win the rebound battle. We just have to be in the moment of what this is. This is playoff basketball,\u201d said Tobias Harris, who scored 20 points. \u201cWe have to be more ready to just go out and there and scrap up. We are a little too casual. Everyone knows that in our locker room. We have to be better every single guy. All of us have to be better. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harsh words from a veteran leader.<\/p>\n

Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 25 points but had eight of the team\u2019s 20 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Magic turned it over just 12 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did so many positive things but 20 turnovers and give up 16 offensive rebounds. That\u2019s hard to overcome and that\u2019s what it comes down to,\u201d Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. \u201cThey\u2019re sending a lot of bodies to (Cunningham). We have to help him by giving him more space so he has room to operate, set screens, be more physical, get the guys off of him but, again, we have to do a better job taking care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pistons haven\u2019t advanced to the second round since losing in the East finals in 2008. They had five straight losing seasons before Bickerstaff came in last season and led them to 44 wins before losing to the Knicks in six games.<\/p>\n

This is no ordinary 1-vs.-8 series. The Magic played well before faltering down the stretch and had to win an elimination game in the play-in tournament.<\/p>\n

The Pistons, meanwhile, rose to the top of the conference while the second-seeded Boston Celtics didn\u2019t have Jayson Tatum for the first several months.<\/p>\n

Detroit has struggled in this series not only with turnovers but with finding scoring options beyond Cunningham and Harris. The Pistons shot 6 of 30 (20%) from 3-point range in Game 4 and 31 of 82 (37.8%) overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack\u2019s against the wall. Whatcha gonna do? You\u2019re gonna fight,\u201d Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart said. \u201cYou have to fight until the end so let\u2019s get back to the crib, protect the crib and take it one game at a time. The series is not over. We\u2019re gonna keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Those 60 wins in the regular season and that No. 1 seed don\u2019t mean much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[38323,105807,108922,10478,139,141,140,110,38617],"class_list":["post-249214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-isaiah-stewart","tag-j-b-bickerstaff","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sports","tag-tobias-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249214","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=249214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}