![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272975896-scaled-e1777356701496-784x441.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jamal Cain of the Orlando Magic dunks the ball during the game against the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: Read more NBA coverage from The Athletic\u00a0here<\/a>. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n There, between Games 3 and 4 of their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons, Jamal Cain asked Desmond Bane if Bane ever feels nervous during playoff games. Bane explained that he feels apprehensive, but his worries evaporate once the game begins.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m the opposite,\u201d Cain recalled saying to Bane. \u201cBefore the game, I\u2019m good. My mind\u2019s good, my body\u2019s good. But once I check into that game, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s like something happens to my chest. It\u2019s just because it\u2019s playoff basketball, though.\u201d<\/p>\n Bane told Cain that everyone on the Magic roster believes in him, and advised Cain to try to remain confident and level-headed.<\/p>\n That talk made a massive difference Monday night. Knowing that his teammates supported him, Cain played a pivotal role in Game 4 as the Magic upset the Pistons 94-88. Orlando needs only one more victory to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n The Pistons fall to 3-1 against the Magic<\/p>\n Franz Wagner suffered an injury to his right calf midway through the third quarter, forcing Cain to serve as a primary defender on Pistons point guard extraordinaire Cade Cunningham. Cain not only helped to frustrate Cunningham, but he also scored eight points and collected nine rebounds, all of them crucial in an intense, sometimes frantic, game.<\/p>\n With Orlando clinging to a precarious 78-76 lead in the fourth quarter, Cain delivered one of the most emphatic \u2014 and most consequential \u2014 dunks of the NBA postseason. Cain dribbled three-quarters of the length of the court, sped past Cunningham and elevated off two feet in the lane, slamming the ball with his right hand over hulking Pistons center Jalen Duren. Duren fell onto his backside, Magic fans within the announced crowd of 19,040 inside the Kia Center leapt off their seats and players on the Magic\u2019s bench jumped up and down.<\/p>\n The sequence changed the tenor of the game.<\/p>\n Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. watched Cain\u2019s dunk from several feet away. When the ball hurtled through the hoop, Carter yelled, along with the fans. \u201cI don\u2019t really think words can describe what I felt when he did that,\u201d Carter said later.<\/p>\n Cain\u2019s performance resonated on so many levels. He grew up in Pontiac, Mich., a suburb of Detroit. When he and his grandfather would play the popular NBA 2K video game series, Cain would always be the Pistons, with a special focus on point guard Chauncey Billups.<\/p>\n Now he\u2019s facing the Pistons in the playoffs, attempting to eliminate the team he grew up watching after its 60-win season. His loved ones piled into Detroit\u2019s Little Caesars Arena for Game 1 and Game 2 to watch him play.<\/p>\n \u201cI put some of my friends and family in a tough spot because they\u2019ve been ride-or-die Pistons fans,\u201d Cain said. \u201cBut it\u2019s definitely a special moment, especially going back to Detroit and having my whole family come out to watch me play, especially in the playoffs. I mean, words can\u2019t describe how I feel, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n Cunningham finished the game with 25 points and six assists, but he made only seven of his 23 shot attempts and turned the ball over eight times.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re sending bodies at him,\u201d Pistons backup center Isaiah Stewart said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to get the ball out of his hands in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n Cain contributed to some of those shooting struggles and also drew a pair of key Pistons offensive fouls. With Orlando ahead 87-85 with 4:10 remaining in the fourth quarter, he was guarding Cunningham when Caris LeVert set an illegal pick and sent him to the ground for Detroit\u2019s 19th turnover of the night. With Orlando ahead 89-85 with 2:56 left in the game, Cain drew an offensive foul on Duren for another illegal pick, Detroit\u2019s 20th turnover.<\/p>\n It was a theme for the evening. The Magic scored 23 points off Pistons turnovers, and the Magic also compiled 16 second-chance points.<\/p>\n Cain and his teammates will take a 3-1 series lead into Game 5 Wednesday night in Detroit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve put ourselves in position to try to get four (wins),\u201d Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. \u201cBut right now, it means nothing. We have the advantage, and now we\u2019ve just got to make sure we try to keep that advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n The Magic are vying to become only the seventh No. 8 seed ever to eliminate a No. 1 seed in NBA first-round history. Since the league expanded its playoff format to include eight teams per conference in 1984, No. 8 seeds hold a 6-79 first-round series record, including the Phoenix Suns\u2019 elimination in these playoffs at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know,\u201d Magic forward Paolo Banchero said, \u201cit\u2019s first to four (wins), not first to three (wins). So like I say, great win here at the crib, protect the home court. But it\u2019s not over. We\u2019ve got to go do what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n It will be difficult. Orlando has played superior defense almost the entire series, but it has struggled to generate offense in the half court. On Monday, the Magic made only 33 percent of their field-goal attempts. As has so often been the case in recent years, 3-point shooting was their Achilles heel; they made only nine of their 35 tries from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n Wagner\u2019s injury is a worry. He said he started to feel discomfort in his right calf approximately one minute before he checked out of Monday\u2019s game with 6:20 remaining in the third quarter. He did not return.<\/p>\n The severity of the injury is unclear. Wagner said he will receive an MRI on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just sucks to come out of the game,\u201d he said. \u201cThe most important thing is that we got the win, and we\u2019ll figure out the rest tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Cain almost certainly will receive extended minutes if Wagner cannot play in Game 5.<\/p>\n Bane\u2019s talk may have crystallized Cain\u2019s mindset, but the entire team has told him that he belongs in the NBA as a rotation player.<\/p>\n \u201cIt helps a lot,\u201d Cain said. \u201cI don\u2019t think no one can do this on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Josh Robbins<\/a> is a senior writer for The Athletic. He began covering the Washington Wizards in 2021 after spending more than a decade on the Orlando Magic beat for The Athletic and the Orlando Sentinel, where he worked for 18 years. His work has been honored by the Football Writers Association of America, the Green Eyeshade Awards and the Florida Society of News Editors. He served as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association from 2014 to 2023. Josh is a native of the greater Washington, D.C., area. Follow Josh on X @JoshuaBRobbins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamal Cain of the Orlando Magic dunks the ball during the game against the Detroit Pistons. Editor\u2019s Note:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[109425,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-249923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-magic-jamal-cain","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249923","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=249923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}