Cade Cunningham scored 32 points and the top-seeded Detroit Pistons staged an incredible comeback Friday night, erasing a 24-point deficit and beating the Orlando Magic 93-79 to force a Game 7 in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Detroit trailed by 22 points at halftime, and Orlando extended its lead to 62-38 early in the third quarter. The Magic appeared to be in prime position to become the seventh-eighth seed to eliminate a top seed in the first round.
And then everything went wrong for Orlando. Absolutely everything.
“The punch of Detroit,” Cunningham said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about all year.”
The Magic became the first team since the 1996-97 season — when play-by-play began to be recorded digitally — to lose at home after leading by at least 24 points and have a chance to win the series.
That figure, and many others, were simply baffling. The Magic missed 23 consecutive field goals, Detroit went on a 35-5 run, and suddenly the course of the game—and quite possibly the series—changed dramatically.
“We focused on every possession, both on offense and defense, and did our best to execute every play to perfection,” said Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff. “Every block, every rebound, all the little details. We went out on the court and focused on that. And that’s how we put ourselves in a position to win.”
Tobias Harris scored 22 points for Detroit, which will host Game 7 on Sunday. Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane each scored 17 points for Orlando, which is now 0-2 in opportunities to close out the series and returned to play without injured forward Franz Wagner.
The first quarter was very close, with Detroit leading 26-25 after those first 12 minutes.
Second quarter: Magic 35, Pistons 12.
Orlando outscored the Pistons 17-0 on 3-pointers and free throws in that quarter, held Detroit to 2-for-11 shooting through the first 5:48 of the period and went into halftime with a 60-38 lead.
