The Orlando Magic defeat the Detroit Pistons, 94-88, taking a 3-1 lead in the series.
Even clichés hit different, depending on the messenger. So when Detroit’s Isaiah Stewart starts talking about urgency and determination, he might not be prime Mike Tyson on the intimidation meter but he isn’t exactly Steph Curry either.
“Backs against the wall, what you going do?” the Pistons burly center said late Monday. “You’re going to fight.”
A boxer before he was a basketball player, Stewart’s bruising style can lead to fouls, skirmishes, flagrants and other problems he and the Pistons have to clean up. But at this point – down 3-1 to Orlando in the teams’ first-round Eastern Conference series – toughening up needs to be Job 1 for the Motor City squad.
A brilliant regular season that landed the Pistons in the East’s No. 1 seed could be over as soon as Wednesday (7 ET, Prime Video) if thing don’t change. Points have been hard to come by for Detroit, and in Orlando’s 94-88 victory in Game 4 Monday, just taking care of the ball was a challenge.
Star guard Cade Cunningham keeps showing his MVP-worthy skills but he hasn’t been efficient and he hasn’t had much help. Stewart was strong inside – eight points, eight blocked shots and a plus-5 in 17:15 – but his tag team partner Jalen Duren still looks tentative.
The Magic tried to conjure some inner Kobe Bryant afterward, remining themselves the job is not done. Especially not against this foe.
“That’s a team that won 60 games this year,” Desmond Bane said more than once. “I’m sure they’re not blinking an eye about winning three games in a row. I’m sure they did it multiple times during the season.”
First to four is all that matters this time of year.
Speaking of which, here are four takeaways from the Magic’s victory:
1. Magic didn’t shoot selves out of focus
Orlando’s shooters looked for most of the night as if they were wearing mittens. They missed 62 field goal attempts, 26 of them from the arc and even nine free throws.
If bad misses can distract a fellow from his duties at the other end, this level of Magic misfiring could have had them curling up in the fetal position instead of manning up as defenders.
Coach Jamahl Mosley’s team needed to compartmentalize, stay locked on their top priority and trust that they would, somehow, score enough.
As long as the Magic didn’t let their misses bleed into their stops, they felt they’d be fine.
“Experience,” was Mosley’s explanation. “[Not making] shots has affected us [this season]. When you tell yourself that story, you’ve got to find a way to change it. In the playoffs, it is different – you tell yourself a different story because the defense has to carry you.
“We’re going to have to continue to do it on the defensive end.”
That commitment showed in a Detroit attack that never made Orlando pay for its sputters and wheezes. The Pistons shot almost as poorly – 31-for-82 overall (37.8%), 6-for-30 on 3s and eight errant foul shots of their own.
Detroit went more than five minutes down the stretch without a field goal.
So while the Magic’s 9-1 scoring edge from an 85-85 tie with 5:24 left hardly qualified as a “run,” it was enough to win.
“Ever since the playoffs started, all the other stuff just kind of went out the window,” said Desmond Bane, who led the winners with 22 points and, fittingly, banked in the long 3-pointer that made it 92-86 with 1:16 left. “Winning’s been everybody’s focus. Everybody asked to step on the court has been bringing their all.”
2. Cunningham playing in a crowd
The absence of a reliable, go-to second scoring option in the series has enabled Orlando to load up defensively on guard Cade Cunningham. It was more of the same Monday – daring the Pistons point guard to shoot from deep (he hit three of his 11 3-pointers) while showing multiple defenders in the paint.
Cunningham scored 25 points but he shot 7-for-23 and committed eight of Detroit’s (yikes!) 20 turnovers. That was on top of the nine he had in the Game 3 loss.
“They’re sending bodies at him,” said Pistons center Isaiah Stewart. “They’re trying to get the ball out of his hands. We have to do a better job – continue giving him outlets.”
More like start. Through four games, only veteran Tobias Harris has been a sidekick looking to score and capable of it. Detroit’s other big, Jalen Duren, was a little more productive but might run out of games before he gets the hang of this Magic matchup.
3. Cain an unlikely playoff helper
Jamal Cain goes upstairs on the poster over Jalen Duren for a 121.5 dunk score!
Jamal Cain began this season on a two-way contract, his fourth such arrangement with his third NBA team after getting chances with Miami (twice) and New Orleans since October 2022.
His back story prior to that was just as hard-scrabble. The slender 6-foot-7 forward, a native of Pontiac, Michigan, attended high schools with names such as Academy of Business and Technology and Cornerstone Health and Technology.
Cain, 27, played four years at Marquette with minimal development, then spent a fifth year at Oakland University north of Detroit. He averaged 19.9 points and 10.2 rebounds in the Horizon League in 2021-22 and went undrafted.
Yet there Cain was in Game 4, producing the highlight of the night. In transition in the fourth quarter, the athletic wing dribbled right at Duren, soared to eye level with the rim and threw down a dunk that had the Pistons strong man sliding backward on the floor.
The buzz in the building from that play barely had quieted a couple of minutes later when Cain went vertical again, this time to push down Paolo Banchero’s miss and break the game’s final tie, putting Orlando up 87-85.
Mosley values the humility in Cain, a product of his journey to this point.
“The way he appreciates the opportunity, the chance that he gets to do this, not as it being a right,” the Magic coach said. “His ability to go out there and play, doing all the little things because he knows he can’t take that for granted.”
Said Bane: “I knew he was a rotational player back when [preseason] open gym started. Guys who defend, make 3s, play that hard, don’t grow on trees.”
4. Wagner might be missed in Game 5
Franz Wagner led all scorers with 17 points in the first half, added just two more in 6:51 of the second, then sat down for the night. The reason? Soreness in his right calf.
The Orlando forward came up big in Game 4, too, with a pair of baskets that helped his team fend a late Pistons run. Subtracting the scoring and the big plays could be a problem for the Magic as the series shifts to Little Caesars Arena for Game 5.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
