Funny how quickly trends can change.<\/p>\n
As the 2026 NBA Playoffs<\/a> began, one of the most daunting things a team can face was said to be a 3-1 hole in a best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n In the league\u2019s long history, 298 teams had done so and only 13 had survived.<\/p>\n That 285-13 record across, well, forever represented a 95.6% success rate, as close to a sure thing as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring 20<\/a>.<\/p>\n Then we rolled into this weekend and, bang, two teams that had faced the 3-1 certain exits were on to the next round. First Philadelphia defied the odds<\/a> by beating Boston in Game 7 on Saturday, then it was Detroit pushing back for the third consecutive game to dig out of that deficit against Orlando.<\/p>\n The Pistons won Game 7 Sunday at Little Caesars Arena 116-94<\/a> by dominating the second and third quarters (63-42) to save their status as the East\u2019s top seed.<\/p>\n Orlando didn\u2019t just let a 3-1 lead<\/a> in games slip away; it was in front by 24 points shortly after halftime in Game 6, thus getting outscored by 58 over the series\u2019 final 71 minutes.<\/p>\n Detroit advances to the East semifinal for the first time since 2008. Orlando heads into the offseason for some soul-searching. Here are four takeaways from the Pistons\u2019 clincher:<\/p>\n 1. Harris meets Game 7 head-on Tobias Harris breaks down the victory after helping lead the Pistons to the Eastern Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n Through his first 14 NBA seasons, spread across five different franchises, Tobias Harris had made it to only three Game 7 situations and had lost all three.<\/p>\n Here near the end of his 15th, he was the biggest reason Detroit prevailed.<\/p>\n The 6-foot-8 Harris provided the Pistons with the invaluable second scorer both teams had been seeking for much of the series.<\/p>\n The way Detroit\u2019s Cade Cunningham and Orlando\u2019s Paolo Banchero \u2013 the series\u2019 two alphas \u2013 had been going, they almost canceled each other out in excellence.<\/p>\n That left it to Harris to step in as he hadn\u2019t this season. He scored 30 points, more than in any game in 2025-26 and second-most in his 74 career playoff games.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimate vet,\u201d teammate Jalen Duren said. \u201cI think [coach J.B. Bickerstaff] calls him \u2018the safety blanket.\u2019 He\u2019s a guy we can go to when we need a bucket. He\u2019s been there for us all season.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris long has been an effective scorer, a role player undecorated by All-Star appearances or scoring titles but worthy of every defense\u2019s attention when the ball goes to him. He often had smaller defenders such as Jalen Suggs and Anthony Black and, especially posting up, proved too strong.<\/p>\n Harris riding shotgun to Cunningham put the necessary distance between their team and Orlando. Banchero\u2019s biggest offensive helper was Desmond Bane, chipping in a below average 16. Detroit\u2019s duo outscored the Magic\u2019s 62-54. Smaller disparities in the Pistons\u2019 favor flowed from there.<\/p>\n Oddly, when ESPN\u2019s \u201cInside the NBA\u201d studio crew mentioned Harris\u2019 unsuccessful Game 7 history to Harris over a remote headset interview, the Pistons forward flashed back to a postseason failure that actually came in a Game 6. It was two years ago when the Knicks eliminated Harris and the 76ers, with Harris going scoreless.<\/p>\n \u201cListen, I had time to reflect on that,\u201d Harris responded. \u201cAnd I just knew, for us to win, this team needs me to be assertive and aggressive and all series long to continue to shoot the basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Paolo\u2019s search for help goes Banch-rupt<\/p>\n Paolo Banchero scores 38 Points vs. the Pistons in Game 7 in Round 1 of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.<\/p>\n Banchero scarcely could have done more.<\/p>\n He logged 42 minutes, took a game-high 25 shots, hit 14 of them, went 4-for-7 from the arc, sank 6 of 8 free throws, grabbed nine rebounds, passed for six assists, blocked a shot by Duren from behind and finished with 38 points.<\/p>\n If only one other Orlando player had done half as much \u2026<\/p>\n Not having forward Franz Wagner for the series\u2019 final three games was the biggest obstacle. Wagner\u2019s best performance came in his last appearance, a two-way beauty in Game 4 in which he scored 19 points and bothered Cunningham defensively.<\/p>\n That one ended early for Wagner, who strained his right calf and spent the final three games in street clothes. Orlando had survived playing without him 48 times in the regular season, but three out of seven proved too much.<\/p>\n Center Wendell Carter Jr. turned out to be his inconsistent self. Suggs was streaky and unreliable, shooting 29.9% in the series. And Bane never did shoulder enough of the offensive load.<\/p>\n By the end of the third quarter, with Detroit in complete command 83-64, Bane had taken only seven shots and scored 10 points. Banchero had 32 on 12-for-22 shooting while eight teammates were a combined 10-for-37.<\/p>\n The Magic never shook Bane free of Detroit\u2019s defensive attention and Bane never forced the issue.<\/p>\n Someone in the postgame media noted that Orlando has gone 1-7 in playoff games when Banchero scores 30 points or more. Rather than an argument for having him shoot less, that sounds like he\u2019s being forced into scoring by necessity, his team short on other outlets. It lacked them in this series.<\/p>\n 3. Order has been restored atop the East<\/p>\n In a couple days, the Pistons will regain their swagger.<\/p>\n Getting pushed to the brink by the East\u2019s No. 8 seed will begin to recede, and the self-assuredness built in crafting their 60-22 regular-season record will be revived.<\/p>\n Had Orlando completed its upset, there\u2019s no telling how topsy-turvy the Eastern Conference might have gone over the next two rounds.<\/p>\n This way, the No. 1 seed is present and accounted for, leaning into defense again as it had all year, and maybe a little better off for having been pushed so far.<\/p>\n You know, the ol\u2019 \u2018whatever doesn\u2019t kill you\u2026\u2019 philosophy.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be battle-tested,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cAnd you have to be able to respond. To do what we did this series only made us better for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n Points have been hard to come by in some recent stretches but the defense Detroit threw at Orlando will be a problem for whichever East rivals have to cope with it going forward. It ranks first (101.9 points allowed per 100 possessions) in efficiency among the teams still standing.<\/p>\n 4. For their next trick, the Magic will\u2026?<\/p>\n Any good prestidigitator knows their tricks rely first and foremost on surprise. But reaching and sticking in the first round three years in a row is the opposite of surprise.<\/p>\n Losing to Cleveland in seven games in 2024, then to Boston in five a year ago, and now to Detroit in seven is like failing three times to guess the right card.<\/p>\n Adding Bane was Orlando\u2019s big chess move last summer. Management felt the solid citizen and multi-level scorer would lead a young group ready to take the next step. Injuries argued otherwise during the season, and Bane himself underperformed at the end.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were a game away from moving onto the next round,\u201d Bane said, \u201cafter all we had been through this season with injuries and adversity. We felt we were right there to rewrite the story. And we didn\u2019t. It\u2019s a terrible feeling for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n While coach Jamahl Mosley said the expected things about learning and growing from another first-round exit, Banchero wasn\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to say yes but we\u2019ve haven\u2019t been out of the first round,\u201d the Magic\u2019s best player said. \u201cGoing off the last three years, the answer is no. The nice answer would be yes, but honestly speaking, I can\u2019t say that we\u2019re good enough to be in the Finals or Eastern finals, because the last three years we\u2019ve had the same result. That\u2019s your answer.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s their challenge. The Pistons are on to bigger things.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him\u00a0here<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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