Desmond Bane scored 22 points and made one of his five 3-pointers with 1:16 left as the Orlando Magic beat the visiting Detroit Pistons 94-88 on Monday to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.

Detroit tied the game at 85-all with 5:24 remaining on Ausar Thompson’s layup before Bane’s 3-pointer capped a 7-1 run and put the Magic ahead 92-86.

Thompson missed two free throws with 28 seconds left and Detroit’s Caris LeVert was off target on a 3-point attempt before Jalen Suggs sealed the victory with two foul shots.

The top-seeded Pistons were held without a field goal in the final five minutes before Isaiah Stewart scored at the buzzer.

“We’ve gotta take care of the basketball, we’ve gotta win the rebounding battle and we’ve just gotta be in the moment of playoff basketball,” Pistons forward Tobias Harris said. “We’re a little too casual.”

Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is set for Wednesday in Detroit.

Orlando forward Franz Wagner had 19 points before exiting late in the third period due to right calf soreness. Paolo Banchero scored 18 points, and Wendell Carter Jr. had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

“Hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow,” Wagner said of his calf injury. “The guys got it done, so that’s all that matters.”

The eighth-seeded Magic forced 20 turnovers and improved to 6-1 in their past seven home playoff games.

Cade Cunningham led Detroit with 25 points, nine rebounds, six assists and eight turnovers. Harris scored 20 points, and Jalen Duren contributed 12 points and eight rebounds.

“They’re sending a lot of bodies to him,” Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff said about Cunningham’s turnovers. “We’ve gotta help him by giving him more space, so that he has room to operate. Set screens for him, be a little more physical, get the guys off of him.”

Orlando jumped to a 19-7 lead before Detroit closed the opening period on a 20-7 run to go up by one.

After Cunningham’s layup put the Pistons ahead 40-30 with 7:14 left in the second quarter, Orlando battled back to take a 54-52 lead into halftime.

Wagner had 17 points in the first half to lead all scorers. Cunningham put up 16 for Detroit before the break.

Bane closed the third quarter with a 3-pointer and two free throws to give Orlando a 75-69 lead.

Jamal Cain ignited the home crowd with a thunderous one-handed dunk over Duren to put the Magic ahead 80-76 with 8:34 left.

Cain provided a spark for Orlando after Wagner left the game and finished with eight points and nine rebounds in nearly 24 minutes off the bench.

“The guys have trust in him,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said of Cain. “They celebrate him when he has some success, but he just does all the little things within a game, rebounding, guarding multiple players. And just does it without saying anything, just (does) what’s necessary to help this team get a win.”

–Field Level Media

In the second-closest vote in the award’s recent history, a 100-member global media panel selected Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg as the 2025-26 NBA Rookie of the Year on Monday.

Flagg, who earned the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy along with the honor, outpaced his former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets 412-386. Flagg earned 56 first-place votes to Knueppel’s 44.

“I see the games every night,” Flagg said about monitoring Knueppel’s results. “I can check the box scores. I think also I was watching Kon just because that’s one of my brothers. We had such a good connection, and we’re gonna be there for each other for the rest of our lives. I was watching him as a fan as well, but there was obviously that competition at the same time.”

Philadelphia 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe finished third with 96 points — receiving zero first-place votes and only one second-place vote — while San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper (5) and Memphis Grizzlies forward Cedric Coward (1) were the only other players to receive votes.

The No. 1 overall selection in the 2026 NBA Draft lived up to all of the lofty expectations. Flagg led all qualifying rookies with 21.0 points per game and finished second in assists per game (4.5) and third in rebounds per contest (6.7).

“This is a truly great honor,” Flagg said in a statement. “I’m grateful to receive this award and thankful to everyone in the Dallas Mavericks organization who believed in me from Day 1.

“None of this happens without my teammates, coaches and the people around me pushing me every day. I came here to compete and help this team win. This is just one step forward in what we’re building.”

Flagg became the fourth rookie to average at least 20 points, six rebounds and four assists per game since the NBA-ABA merger. Larry Bird (1979-80), Michael Jordan (1984-85) and Luke Doncic (2018-19) reached those plateaus.

At 19 years, 112 days — as of April 12 — Flagg is the second-youngest honoree, just six days older than LeBron James, who was tabbed in 2003-04.

Some experts thought Knueppel might earn the award, as he led the entire league in 3-point field goals made (273), outpacing the former rookie mark by 67 treys. But the fourth overall pick in the draft finished third on the Hornets in scoring (18.5 ppg) behind Brandon Miller (20.2) and LaMelo Ball (20.1)

Four years ago, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes edged Cleveland’s Evan Mobley 378-363, which remains the smallest gap under the current format (2002-03).

–Field Level Media

The Knicks will try to ride a tone-setting first quarter from Game 4 of their Eastern Conference first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks into Game 5 on Tuesday in New York.

The Knicks responded to consecutive one-point losses by securing a seven-point lead after the end of the first quarter in Game 4. They doubled the advantage by halftime and extended the lead to as many as 24 points en route to a 114-98 victory on Saturday.

The best-of-seven series is tied at two wins apiece.

“You can’t be satisfied with this performance,” Josh Hart said after his team regained home-court advantage in the series. “You can’t go into Game 5 thinking we had a great game, and they’re just going to lay down, ‘cause they’re not.

“They’re going to come out with a sense of urgency, a sense of physicality that they probably haven’t shown yet. We’ve got to be ready to weather that storm and have our own physicality.”

Atlanta head coach Quin Snyder credited New York’s defensive intensity — and the play of Hart — for contributing to his team’s stumble out of the gate.

“More than anything, the start of the game, their physicality bothered us,” Snyder said.

It’s safe to say Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby bothered the Hawks as well.

Towns recorded his first postseason triple-double after finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He is the fourth player in franchise history to record a triple-double in a playoff game, joining Hall of Famers Walt Frazier and Dick McGuire as well as Hart.

“I thought we did a great job coming out with more tenacity. More desperation I think is the proper word,” Towns said.

Anunoby finished with 22 points while making 9 of 16 shots from the floor for the second straight game. He also collected 10 rebounds and All-Star guard Jalen Brunson had 19 points to continue his team’s strong play since the fourth quarter of Game 3.

“The way we’ve been able to (play on both sides of the ball) these past five quarters is how we’ve got to play,” Brunson said.

New York scored 21 points off 19 turnovers in Game 4, much to the chagrin of Atlanta’s CJ McCollum.

“They played better than us. They played harder than us,” said McCollum, who was limited to just 17 points after averaging 27.0 over the first three games.

“We would have liked to go up 3-1, but if you would have told us we’d be 2-2 going back to the Garden, life’s not so bad.”

Jalen Johnson made just 4 of 12 shots to finish with 14 points in Game 4. He averaged 21.3 points over the previous three games.

Like Johnson, the rest of the Hawks struggled to find their range. They shot 41.0% from the floor and 24.4% from 3-point range.

The Hawks, who rely heavily on the transition game, didn’t record a fastbreak point until the fourth quarter in Game 4.

“There’s no transition when you’re turning the ball over and bringing it up out of the net,” Snyder said.

–Field Level Media

In court Monday to seek a dismissal of federal charges, former Miami Heat point guard Terry Rozier learned prosecutors are expanding the case against him with intentions to present new charges to a grand jury.

Federal prosecutors informed Rozier’s legal team two hours before a court appearance on Monday that they plan to bring new charges alleging Rozier committed crimes of bribery and fraud, depriving the Charlotte Hornets and NBA of “honest services” when he conspired to produce a specific ill-gotten result for the financial benefit of an alliance of acquaintances and bettors.

The new charges will not automatically expand the federal case against Rozier. A grand jury would weigh new evidence presented before deciding whether it merits being added to the case.

Rozier, 32, pleaded not guilty in December to conspiracy charges involving wire fraud and money laundering.

He successfully fought for his $26.6 million salary from the Miami Heat before his release became official earlier this month. The Heat placed Rozier on administrative leave and began depositing his paychecks into an interest-bearing escrow account shortly after his Oct. 23 arrest.

Rozier is accused of alerting gamblers that he would leave a game early while playing for the Charlotte Hornets in March 2023. The gamblers then bet large sums on the “under” for Rozier’s stats in that contest.

Rozier averaged 10.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 64 games (23 starts) for the Heat last season. His career averages through 10 NBA seasons for the Boston Celtics, Charlotte and Miami are 13.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

–Field Level Media