The Detroit Pistons need a three-game winning streak to avoid joining an infamous list. Only six top seeds in NBA history have flamed out in the first round of the playoffs to a No. 8 seed.
The Pistons trail Orlando 3-1 in their best-of-seven series after a 94-88 road loss on Monday. The series resumes in Detroit on Wednesday night.
Detroit has to regain its swagger or join the 2023 Milwaukee Bucks as the only top seed since 2012 to get knocked out this early in the postseason.
The troubling reality for the Pistons, who won 60 regular-season games, is that the Magic — with the exception of Detroit’s third-quarter outburst in Game 2 — consistently have looked like the better team.
The Magic have throttled the All-Star pick-and-roll combination of Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren, leaving Detroit’s offense in tatters.
“The way that we’ve been playing, that stuff’s not good enough to win games in this league,” Cunningham said. “This league’s too good, they’re a good team. They’re outrebounding us, turning me over and we haven’t hit enough shots. Our defense hasn’t caught its footing. It’s not shocking that we’re losing games playing like that.”
With Duren neutralized by counterpart Wendell Carter Jr. and Orlando’s defensive coverage, Cunningham has been left to carry the offense. He’s averaging 29.5 points in the series but shooting just 42.4% overall and 28.6% from 3-point range. Turnovers have been a bigger issue. He’s averaging 6.8 giveaways in the series and committed eight in Game 4.
“Yeah, it’s frustrating,” Cunningham said. “A lot of it was on myself; I was frustrated with my own play. Having numbers, not making plays in transition. Things like that, the things I do best, just not being able to make plays for my team. They killed us on the offensive glass, our defense didn’t hold up. All that stuff. We’re all frustrated with all that stuff. We’ve gotta fix it and come back better.”
The Pistons’ lack of 3-point shooting has come back to bite them — they’re making just 27.5 percent of their attempts in the series.
Orlando realizes that in order to complete the upset, it will have to grind out another victory against a now desperate club.
“This is a team that won 60 games,” guard Desmond Bane said. “I’m sure they will not blink an eye about being able to win three games in a row. They did it multiple times during the regular season. We are going to have to come ready to play. I’m excited about the challenge.”
Paolo Banchero (21.0 points per game) and Bane (19.0) have been the Magic’s offensive leaders in the series. Franz Wagner scored 19 points in Game 4 but left with calf tightness. His availability for Wednesday and the remainder of the series is a big question mark.
In his absence, Jamal Cain made a major impact, including a monster dunk over Duren in the second half. Cain finished with eight points and nine rebounds.
“We’ve put ourselves in position to try to get four (wins),” coach Jamahl Mosley said. “Right now, it means nothing. We have the advantage and now we’ve just got to make sure we’ve try to keep that advantage.”
