{"id":257220,"date":"2026-05-04T02:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257220\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T02:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:33:26","slug":"pistons-run-away-from-magic-in-game-7-to-complete-comeback-from-3-1-series-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257220\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons run away from Magic in Game 7 to complete comeback from 3-1 series hole"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic<\/a> were competitive early in Sunday\u2019s Game 7 despite playing without Franz Wagner<\/a>. But the Detroit Pistons<\/a> turned up the heat in the second quarter to spark a 116-94 win<\/a> and secure their first playoff series win since advancing to the Eastern Conference finals in 2008.<\/p>\n

Tobias Harris<\/a> scored 17 of his 30 points in the second quarter as the Pistons closed the first half on a 20-6 run. From there, the second half served as a party in Detroit as the Pistons never relinquished control.<\/p>\n

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With the win, the Pistons advance to the second round of the playoffs and avoid the ignominious history of becoming the seventh NBA team to lose a first-round series as a No. 1 seed to a No. 8 seed. It\u2019s a prospect that looked like a long shot at best after the Magic dazed the Pistons with a 3-1 series lead.<\/p>\n

Magic can\u2019t recover from Game 6 collapse<\/p>\n

The Magic looked ready to celebrate the series upset on their home court in Game 6 on Friday as they extended a 60-38 halftime lead to 24 points in the third quarter. But Orlando\u2019s offense went stunningly silent<\/a> from there.<\/p>\n

The Magic missed 23 consecutive consecutive second-half field goals and shot 1 of 20 from the field in the fourth quarter. The result was the lowest-scoring half by a team<\/a> in NBA playoff history as the Magic mustered just 19 points and allowed the Pistons to rally for a 93-79 win.<\/p>\n

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That win extended the series and allowed the Pistons to return home Sunday, where they closed out the series with relative ease. Cade Cunningham<\/a> led the way for Detroit with 32 points and 12 assists while shooting 10 of 18 from the field and 4 of 6 from 3. He was also tasked for much of the game with defending Orlando\u2019s No. 1 option, Paolo Banchero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harris, Duren<\/a> step up to support Cunningham<\/p>\n

A Pistons team that\u2019s frequently struggled to find shot creation outside of Cunningham got what it needed from Harris with his fifth straight 20-plus point effort in the series. Harris\u2019 second-quarter outburst set the tone for the remainder of the game, and he finished with 30 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals while shooting 11 of 18 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3.<\/p>\n

Harris closed the series with 23, 22 and now 30 points as the Pistons faced and survived elimination in three consecutive games. His effort on Sunday led a 16-of-33 effort from 3 that paced Detroit\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody can say s*** to me about Tobias,\u201d Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said postgame<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s dependable, reliable, prepared for the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jalen Duren was again a presence in the post with 15 points and 15 rebounds. The first-time All-Star who averaged 10.5 rebounds in the regular season cracked double-digits in rebounds for the first time in the series.<\/p>\n

The Pistons advance to face the winner of Sunday night\u2019s Game 7 between the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> and Toronto Raptors<\/a>. The Magic, meanwhile, are left to wonder what might have been.<\/p>\n

Blown opportunity for Orlando<\/p>\n

The Magic had three chances to close out the series and appeared to have it in the bag with their 24-point lead at home in the second half of Game 6. But their historic collapse spoiled their own shot at making history in their favor.<\/p>\n

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In the end, they didn\u2019t have enough firepower to compete with a Pistons team that finished second in the NBA in defensive rating in the regular season. Wagner missed a third straight game Sunday with a calf injury<\/a>, leaving the Magic without their No. 2 option who was critical in building a 3-1 series lead.<\/p>\n

Banchero kept the Magic afloat with 23 first-half points en route to 38 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Desmond Bane<\/a> added 16 points while shooting 3 of 5 from 3.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t nearly enough for a Magic team that struggled to find offense against a smothering Detroit defense. Orlando shot 41% from the field and countered Detroit\u2019s hot 3-point shooting with a 10-of-30 (33.3%) effort.<\/p>\n

The Pistons will host Game 1 of the second round against the Cleveland Cavaliers Tuesday night (7 p.m., NBC Sports Network).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Magic were competitive early in Sunday\u2019s Game 7 despite playing without Franz Wagner. But the Detroit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[38323,15356,5798,5834,108412,5819,139,141,1239,140,5799,5797,38617,5835],"class_list":["post-257220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-desmond-bane","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-duren","tag-franz-wagner","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-paolo-banchero","tag-the-magic","tag-tobias-harris","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257220","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=257220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}