Jalen Suggs hit a 3-pointer for the opening bucket of Sunday’s playoff game between the top-seeded Detroit Pistons and No. 8 seed Orlando Magic.
The Magic never relinquished that lead as they stunned the Pistons for a 112-101 Game 1 win.
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Orlando set the tone with a 35-27 advantage through one quarter. The Pistons would rally to tie the game in the third and put pressure on the Magic in the fourth. But Orlando had an answer each time and never allowed the Pistons to take the lead in front of their home crowd.
Franz Wagner led the late charge for the Magic, scoring 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to help the Magic close out the upset win on the road.
After Orlando extended its lead to 108-106 in the final three minutes, fans started filing out of Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.
With the win, the Magic have a 1-0 lead and will seek to become just the seventh No. 8 seed to win a first-round playoff series in NBA history. The 2022-23 Miami Heat were the last team to do it with a 4-1 win over the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks en route to the NBA Finals.
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The win follows up a dramatic play-in for the Magic, who lost their first play-in game against the Philadelphia 76ers and faced a do-or-die game against the Charlotte Hornets with the final Eastern Conference playoff berth on the line.
The Magic responded with a dominant, 121-90 win over the Hornets to secure their spot in the playoff field. And now they’ve secured the only of the first weekend of the playoffs through Sunday’s game. Higher-seeded home teams won each of the previous six matchups.
The Magic won with a balanced effort in which each of their starters scored 16-plus points. Paolo Banchero led the way with 23 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal. Wagner added 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals to his 19 points.
Wendell Carter Jr. (17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals), Desmond Bane (17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals) and Jalen Suggs (16 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals) joined Banchero and Wagner with stat-stuffing efforts.
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The Pistons entered Sunday’s game with the NBA’s second-best defense in terms of defensive rating. But it was the Magic who put the clamps down with 11 steals and six blocks while limiting the Pistons to 40% shooting from the field, 31% shooting from 3 and 16.8 points below their regular-season average of 117.8 points per game.
Cade Cunningham, who missed most of the stretch run of the regular season with a collapsed lung, led the Pistons with 39 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists while shooting 13 of 27 from the field.
But unlike Orlando’s balanced effort, Detroit’s was largely a one-man show. Tobias Harris (17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) was the only other Piston to score in double figures.
The Magic now have home-court advantage in the series. Game 2 is scheduled for Wednesday in Detroit (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) before the series shifts to Orlando for Game 3 on Saturday.
