One game remains, and suddenly all the pressure has shifted.
After staring down elimination just days ago, the top-seeded Detroit Pistons forced a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday against the visiting Orlando Magic, putting themselves on the brink of history.
Only 13 teams in NBA history have rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win a playoff series, a reminder of both the rarity of Detroit’s push and the opportunity still in front of Orlando. The winner will face either Cleveland or Toronto in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Detroit’s 93-79 victory in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference first-round series on Friday flipped the series on its head, erasing what once looked like a commanding Orlando march after the eighth-seeded Magic built and then squandered a 24-point lead.
“It’s going to be a war,” said Detroit’s Duncan Robinson. “It’s pretty much what every game has been so far this series — super physical.
“They got a lot of pride in their locker room too. We expect them to come out swinging on Sunday. We’re super excited to get back and have a game seven on our home floor in front of our fans. So, it’s going to be a great challenge.”
The Pistons were able to force the decisive game by mounting a furious, defensive-ignited comeback in the second half. The Magic missed 23 consecutive shots, including 27 of their final 28 shots, and were outscored 55-19 during that span.
“Hopefully we start the game like we finished the game,” said Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “That’s going to be extremely important for us.
“I expect us to do what we do, and that’s keep swinging.”
The Magic are looking to avoid their second 3-1 collapse in franchise history. In 2003, they blew a 3-1 advantage over the top-seeded Pistons in their NBA first-round series. The Pistons haven’t won a playoff series since 2008, while the Magic haven’t since 2010.
Magic coach Jamahl Mosley was asked what his team has to do in Game 7 to bounce back from the stunning defeat.
“You got to wash it, you got to learn from it, you got to go get Game 7,” Mosley said. “You got to get it the hard way.
“We’ve been in Game 7 before, and we understand what it looks like on the road, the magnitude of it, what we know we’re capable of doing in this situation.”
Orlando will need to move past its 1-of-20 fourth-quarter shooting performance, including a combined 1-of-15 effort from Paolo Banchero, Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs, while also preparing for the likelihood of being without forward Franz Wagner, who has missed the last two games with a calf injury.
“It’s the playoffs and this series has been a slugfest,” Banchero said. “Series ain’t over. They’ve clawed their way to tie it at 3-3. You don’t have time to hang your head about this. Obviously, it was a bad loss. Got to chalk it up. There’s nothing we can do about it at this point.”
The Magic will also need to figure out how to cool off Detroit’s Cade Cunningham who has scored 77 points over the last two games, including 32 in Game 6.
“He’s their engine,” Banchero said of Cunningham. “He does a lot of their scoring and facilitating and so, yeah, we got to make it hard on him, try to make others beat us, just do whatever we can to win the game.
“It’s one game. It’s all that matters is just one game. So, I think we got to just do whatever it takes.”
