{"id":257115,"date":"2026-05-04T00:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257115\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T00:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:05:22","slug":"orlando-magic-season-ends-in-game-7-blowout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257115\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic season ends in Game 7 blowout"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014 The Magic<\/a> have waited 16 years to win an NBA playoff series<\/a> and they\u2019ll have to wait even longer now.<\/p>\n

Playing in a do-or-die Game 7 inside Little Caesars Arena<\/a> on Sunday afternoon, Orlando<\/a> trailed by as many as 23 points in a game that saw the top-seeded Pistons<\/a> pull away in the second half to win 116-94 in front of a national TV audience on ABC.<\/p>\n

With the loss, Orlando\u2019s season comes to an end after it led the first-round series 3-1 and missed a prime opportunity to win it in Game 6 at home.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Pistons forced Game 7 and won on its home court, clinching its first series victory since 2008. Detroit also becomes the 15th team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1.<\/p>\n

And history repeated itself after the Magic previously blew a 3-1 series lead over top-seeded Pistons in their 2003 first-round series.<\/p>\n

Although Magic star forward Paolo Banchero scored 38 points, he was without key teammate Franz Wanger (right calf strain) for a third straight contest and didn\u2019t get much help elsewhere on the court.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Detroit star and Montverde Academy product Cade Cunningham notched 32 points, Tobias Harris hit five 3-pointers to score 30 points and Daniss Jenkins scored 15 off the bench.<\/p>\n

Orlando got no closer than 14 points with 4:22 remaining in the game but the Pistons didn\u2019t crumble late.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time in the last three years the Magic have come up short in a first-round Game 7. Orlando also lost to Cleveland in seven games in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Pistons\u00a0will face either Cleveland or Toronto in the Eastern Conference semifinals while the Magic will head home to start an offseason searching for answers after an underwhelming season.<\/p>\n

Banchero\u2019s impact<\/p>\n

The Magic forward wasted no time making his mark on the contest by scoring Orlando\u2019s first 11 points.<\/p>\n

Banchero sank his first four 3-pointers to reach 23 points in the first half but was the only member of the Magic to reach double figures before the break.<\/p>\n

But he was far from perfect, turning the ball over five times while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out six assists.<\/p>\n

It was his second 30-point performance in the series \u2013 he scored 45 in Game 5\u00a0\u2013 and marked the eighth time he\u2019s reached surpassed the scoring mark in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Rest of starters<\/p>\n

Jalen Suggs was responsible for three of Orlando\u2019s nine first-half turnovers. After a tough going in Game 6, Suggs failed to find his shot in Game 7 as well.<\/p>\n

The Magic guard shot 2-for-9 from the floor for just six points in 34 minutes and missed all four of his 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n

Desmond Bane knocked down two 3-pointers before the break, but found himself in early foul trouble, picking up his third with 4:01 left in the second quarter. Bane added one more 3-pointer to finish with 16 points in 38 minutes.<\/p>\n

Wendell Carter Jr. (13 points) and Jamal Cain (5) \u2013 who started in place of Wagner \u2013 shot a combined 5-for-13 from the field for just 18 points.<\/p>\n

Detroit\u2019s starters outscored Orlando\u2019s 95-78.<\/p>\n

Second-quarter swing<\/p>\n

The game was tied at 45-45 with 2:47 left in the second quarter before Detroit wreaked havoc and closed out the first half on a 15-4 run.<\/p>\n

The Pistons scored 12 points off six Orlando turnovers during the frame while the Magic forced zero turnovers in the same stretch. Those turnovers led to easy scoring opportunities for Detroit, which notched 10 fastbreak points and 10 points in the paint during the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Two of those turnovers were forced by Detroit\u2019s Ausar Thompson, who recorded two steals in the second quarter. On the other end, Cunningham dished out seven assists with zero turnovers in the frame.<\/p>\n

Detroit outscored Orlando 40-27 in the second quarter to take a 60-49 lead into the break and didn\u2019t let up from there.<\/p>\n

Change in rotation<\/p>\n

Mosley made a significant change in his rotation by turning to reserve center Moe Wagner instead of Goga Bitadze, the latter of whom had served as the team\u2019s backup center in the first six games.<\/p>\n

Playing in his first meaningful minutes of the series, Wagner knocked down his first 3-pointer from the right corner. The older brother of Franz Wagner, however, finished with just five points and two rebounds in 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Mosley also stuck with veteran Jevon Carter off the bench. Carter only played two first-half minutes in Game 6 but saw six minutes of first-half action on Sunday. He saw three more minutes in the second half but didn\u2019t score on two missed shots.<\/p>\n

Anthony Black was the first Orlando reserve to enter the game but started 1-for-6 from the floor while missing his first three triples. Playing most of the fourth quarter, Black ended with 11 points and five steals in 33 minutes.<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 The Magic have waited 16 years to win an NBA playoff series and they\u2019ll have to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-257115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257115","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=257115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}