Pistons rally from 24 down to beat Magic 93-79 and force Game 7 after Orlando goes ice-cold
ORLANDO, Fla. — Cade Cunningham scored 32 points and the top-seeded Detroit Pistons pulled off an incredible rally 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 at the half and Orlando’s lead went to 62-38 early in the third quarter.
The Magic looked absolutely poised to become the seventh No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the conference quarterfinal round.
And then everything went wrong for Orlando. Everything. The Magic became the first team since 1996-97 — when play-by-play began getting tracked digitally — to lose at home after leading by at least 24 points with a chance to win a series.
That number, and a whole lot of others, were just baffling. The Magic missed 23 consecutive shots from the field, Detroit went on a 35-5 run and just like that, the story of the game — and quite possibly the series — changed wildly. Tobias Harris scored 22 points for Detroit, which will host Game 7 on Sunday.
Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane each scored 17 for Orlando, which is now 0-2 in closeout opportunities in this series. The first quarter was back and forth, Detroit leading 26-25 after those opening 12 minutes. The second quarter: Magic 35, Pistons 12.