Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane scored 25 points apiece as the Orlando Magic withstood a fourth-quarter rally to beat the visiting Detroit Pistons 113-105 on Saturday in Game 3 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
Detroit trailed 96-79 with 8:34 remaining before Cade Cunningham’s 3-pointer capped a 25-8 run and tied the game at 104 with 3:15 left.
Cunningham made one of two free throws to put top-seeded Detroit ahead by one with 2:52 left before Orlando closed on a 9-0 run to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
Game 4 is set for Monday in Orlando.
Banchero had 12 rebounds and nine assists for the eighth-seeded Magic, who improved to 7-1 in their last eight home postseason games, including play-in tournament games. Bane was 7-for-9 from 3-point range.
“That’s just him being himself,” Banchero said of Bane, who was 9-of-31 shooting in the series prior to Saturday. “He started slow in the first two games. We knew that wasn’t going to continue. He’s a killer; that’s just what he does. Glad to have him on our team.”
Franz Wagner added 17 points for Orlando. Jalen Suggs scored 15, and Wendell Carter Jr. had 14 points and 17 rebounds.
“We have a lot of respect for those guys over there,” Banchero said of the Pistons. “But we know how we stack up and we know what we have in our locker room. So we don’t fear them. We have a lot of respect for them. and we know we have to bring it on Monday.”
Cunningham scored 12 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter for the Pistons. Tobias Harris scored 23 points, Ausar Thompson had 17 and Duncan Robinson added 10.
The Pistons are now in a hole after being the top team in the East in the regular season.
“It’s one game at a time, that’s what playoff series are,” Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We come down here, we win on Monday and we take homecourt advantage back. Today’s game, we’ll learn from it but it’s over with. Our guys have been consistent all year. We’ve been able to move onto the next. I trust our guys that we’ll focus on it, we’ll learn from it, we’ll study it, we’ll get better at it and then Monday we’ll be ready to go.”
The teams were tied at 26 after the first quarter. Suggs was held scoreless before hitting a 3-pointer to put the Magic ahead 42-36 with 6:50 left in the second quarter.
Suggs had 12 points in the second quarter to help Orlando take a 61-54 at the half.
Thompson tallied 15 points to lead all scorers in the first half. Bane’s 14 points paced the Magic.
Bane made his first six 3-point attempts, including one with 8:32 left in the third quarter to give Orlando a 74-62 lead.
The Magic led 87-79 at the end of the third quarter and opened the fourth on a 7-0 run to move ahead 94-79 with 10:05 remaining.
Cunningham committed nine turnovers and was 8-for-23 shooting from the field and 3 of 10 from 3-point range for Detroit, which shot 34.4% (11 of 32) from beyond the arc.
Pistons All-Star Jalen Duren had just eight points in 27 minutes before fouling out. He is averaging just 9.0 points in the series, down from 19.5 in the regualr season.
“Just be there for him, encourage him and feed him the ball,” Thompson said of Duren. “Give him some space to work. I just want him to keep being aggressive. We’re good, we’re not worried about him.”
–Field Level Media
