Your bag is empty.
The Detroit Pistons are on the brink of a stunning elimination at the hands of the Orlando Magic, trailing three games to one. The Magic have a chance to close them out in Detroit on Wednesday night before potentially returning home for Game 6 if necessary.
This was always extremely unlikely. Consider the expected outcome for the Magic before the Play-In concluded. They were picked by almost everyone, including some Magic fans, to lose to the Charlotte Hornets. Many expected the Hornets to put up a better hypothetical fight against the Pistons.
Well, the Magic dismantled the Hornets and then rode the momentum into a shocking Game 1 upset. But when Detroit evened the series in Game 2, many felt that Orlando’s magic, pun intended, had run out. Not so, obviously, after a Game 4 win.
Orlando Magic put Detroit Pistons on brink of elimination
The Detroit Pistons are one of the NBA’s best defensive teams. They’re also, arguably, the most physical team. They make plays on offense by bullying smaller, less physical teams. They do the same on defense, forcing turnovers and bad shots by physically smothering their opponents. It’s all within the rules, of course.
The Magic are a great defensive team, too. Even when their offense scuffled and they really struggled to win games, the defense wasn’t really a big problem. When they’re on, the defense can be, as we are seeing, elite. The Magic are also big and physical, so they’re matching what Detroit’s bread and butter has been, and it’s worked wonderfully.
Aside from an ugly blowout in Game 2, the Magic have truly dominated through four games. They’ve taken the game to the Pistons, putting them on the brink of elimination. This after the Pistons won 60 games and looked like the best team in the conference for the entire regular season, even when Cade Cunningham got hurt.
The Magic, on the other hand, were viewed as the season’s biggest disappointment. They went .500 and earned the seventh seed by way of the Play-In. They went all in by trading three first-round picks for Desmond Bane and still couldn’t escape the Play-In. Now, they’re on the brink of proving that none of it mattered.
Jalen Duren finds fault
One of the reasons the Pistons are so good this year is that Jalen Duren made a big leap. He was a Most Improved Player of the Year candidate, though Nickeil Alexander-Walker won the award. After the loss on Monday, he revealed what has gone wrong.
“Too many turnovers, bro,” Duren said. “They are scoring off of our mistakes. The whole series, we just been shooting ourselves in the foot. We got to clean that up, man.” The Pistons had 20 turnovers, which led to 23 Magic points in a six-point loss.
“I still think we’re the better team, top to bottom,” Duren said of his top-seeded Pistons. “But we just got to … we can’t keep digging ourselves in the hole. Then, we are fighting ourselves, that team, the refs … we just got to be better.”
J.B. Bickerstaff, who helped Detroit get back into the win column with an epic halftime speech in Game 2, said, “We’re going to come out punching. That I promise you. We’re not going to lay down for anybody. It’s one game at home and that’s what your focus is on, is you got to go home and win one game. And that’s where our mindset is.”
It remains to be seen whether or not that will truly turn the tide in their favor.
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