Cade Cunningham scored 32 points and the Detroit Pistons erased a 24-point deficit to beat the Orlando Magic 93-79 on Saturday, forcing a Game 7 in their Eastern Conference first-round series. Detroit will host Sunday’s winner-take-all game. Orlando, which had two chances to close this series at home, is now 0-for-2 in closeout opportunities—and has a lot of explaining to do after one of the most stunning collapses in recent playoff history.
“Detroit grit,” Cunningham said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about all year.”
How It Fell Apart for Orlando
The Magic were in complete control. The first quarter was back-and-forth, Detroit leading 26-25 after twelve minutes. Then the second quarter happened.
Orlando outscored the Pistons 35-12 in the period, held Detroit to 2-for-11 shooting over the first 5:48, and went 17-0 from three-point range and the free-throw line combined. The Magic led 60-38 at halftime. The 22-point margin was the fourth-largest by a No. 8 seed over a No. 1 seed in this playoff format. Nobody in the building—nobody watching anywhere—had any reason to believe Detroit was coming back.
Then the third quarter happened.
Orlando missed 23 consecutive field goal attempts. Detroit went on a 35-5 run. The Magic, who were on the verge of becoming just the seventh No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the first round, became instead the first team since the 1996-97 season—when play-by-play tracking began—to lose at home after leading by at least 24 points with a chance to close a series. The numbers are almost too strange to absorb. A 35-5 run. Twenty-three straight misses. A 24-point lead, gone.
“We’ve got to go do it the hard way,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said.
What the Pistons Did Right
The Pistons did not wait for Orlando to collapse. They went out and forced it.
Tobias Harris added 22 points alongside Cunningham’s 32, and Detroit executed with the kind of possession-by-possession discipline that is exceptionally hard to maintain when you are down by more than 20 in a playoff game with your season on the line.
“We took each possession at a time, both offensively and defensively, and tried our best to execute on every single possession,” said Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “Every screening action, every rebound, all the small things. We went out and focused on that. And we put ourselves in position to win.”
Duncan Robinson, who has been a key contributor off the bench throughout the series, pointed to the character in that locker room as the reason the rally was possible at all.
“When things get sideways, people splinter. And this group does the opposite,” Robinson said. “It finds a way to just come together. There’s a lot of pride in that locker room, not wanting to go out like that.”
The Remaining Damage
Orlando’s Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane each scored 17 points, but neither could arrest the collapse once it started. The Magic were again without injured forward Franz Wagner, whose absence has clearly affected their depth and offensive rhythm in critical moments.
When the final buzzer sounded, the remaining Orlando crowd booed on their way out of the Kia Center—possibly for the last time this season.
The Pistons head home for Game 7. Cunningham’s record-setting Game 5. A 24-point comeback in Game 6. Whatever this series has been, it is not over.
Monday’s Game 7 settles it.
