Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Orlando Magic are close to making history as they have the Detroit Pistons on the ropes

The Orlando Magic are on the verge of becoming the seventh team in NBA history to beat the first seed as the eighth. Game 4 easily became one of the most important in franchise history considering the stakes and how they handled the rough times that could have flipped the edge like a light switch. 

Both defenses were implacable, and as a result, 3-point makes dropped few and far between, and each felt like body shots. 

It was obvious the game was headed for classic territory when the Pistons shook off five straight turnovers and quickly climbed out of a 12-point ditch. Franz Wagner and Desmond Bane carried the Magic to a two-point lead at halftime, but the former only played close to seven more minutes because of a calf issue. The third period was also like a mud-wrestling match with bodies bumping and coverages yielding close to nothing. 

Wagner’s absence forced Jamal Cain, who had his contract converted to a standard from a two-way on March 20, to step up big-time by playing 17 second-half minutes. He jammed the dunk of the playoffs (so far) by coming up court, viciously baptizing Jalen Duren, and had a mean putback late in the game that were emotional plays that lifted the team.

His pressure on-ball and as a helper made him more reliable than Anthony Black and Tristan da Silva, who are not bad defenders but lack Cain’s extra level of physicality. 

 Bane had missed his first four shots of the fourth quarter, but redeemed himself and rescued the team, dropping a 29-foot bank-triple on a screen-roll over Isaiah Stewart. Only 76 seconds remained and the Magic held on to their six-point lead to take a gripping 3-1 advantage.

The series now returns to Detroit. Keep in mind that the Pistons won 15 more regular-season games yet they tied 2-2 against each other before the playoffs. Notably, Banchero missed one win and Wagner missed the other, but the Pistons did not have Cade Cunningham for the April 6 game because he was recovering from a collapsed lung.

The Magic had a turbulent regular season, but turned into the team they were expected to be at the right time. They had belief in themselves and a lot credit goes to coach Jamahl Mosley, whose seat has been boiling since November. He texted a friend of his before Game 1 that they were going to take it, not steal it, and that’s exactly what they did. They then atoned for getting smacked around in the second half of Game 2 by delivering the two most important wins of the season.

The Pistons haven’t been able to rattle the Magic because the latter can match their brutishness. That should terrify Detroit that it was true even with Wagner out. His status is in question for the remainder of the series, but the other side has a glaring issue, too: There is not enough shot creation next to Cunningham, forcing him to do too much. Eight of his team’s 20 turnovers were his.

The other eighth seeds to upstage the first were the 1994 Denver Nuggets, 1999 New York Knicks, 2007 Golden State Warriors, 2011 Memphis Grizzlies, 2012 Philadelphia 76ers and 2023 Miami Heat. Notably, the Magic are doing it without the favorites facing a significant injury to their best player.