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The Orlando Magic again outmuscled the Detroit Pistons as Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner rose in the clutch to hold off the Pistons late. The Magic now lead their best-of-seven series 2-1 and have control against the top-seeded Pistons heading into Game 4.
The Magic again locked in on defense to hold off the Pistons and bottle them up throughout. But the difference was the trust the team showed in each other with good ball movement that led to open threes. And then, when the game was on the line, they kept the faith and stuck together to make big shots.
While the Magic got an extremely balanced effort, the game came down to their star players. They scored eight straight points after falling behind by a point in the final four minutes, making several big shots and big plays on defense to secure the victory.
00:00 Magic vs. Pistons series analysis
08:15 Magic's playoff resilience
15:51 Paolo's season struggles
20:23 Paolo's playoff impact
25:13 Bane's impressive 25-point game
31:26 Franz's impact and Pistons' strategy
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The Orlando Magic slogan for the last three playoffs has been everybody in.
And it took everybody and trusting everybody to get a game three victory today on Lockdown
Magic.
You are a Lockdown Magic, your daily Orlando Magic podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast
Network, your team every day.
Hey, and you are indeed a Lockdown Magic today is April 25th that will eventually be
April 26th, 2026.
My name is Philip Ross.
I'm the senior writer over at Orlando Magic Daily.com on today's episode of Lockdown Magic.
This wasn't just about one player, it wasn't just about one play, it wasn't just about
anything else.
It took everybody to win game three and retake control the series to one how the Orlando
Magic's trust has been built to deliver the series.
We all hope they'd have plus Halloween care on front song are also really good in the
fourth quarter and and kept the magic in the league.
We'll talk about how star power is still the factor to watch in this series.
We'll get to that coming up here in just a moment.
But first today's episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to my game time download the game
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If you want to be in the Kia Center Monday night, you can get $20 off your first purchase.
And blazing everywhere in the building here at the Kia Center is the slogan everybody
in.
That nice little little slogan is a nice little kind of playoff moniker.
It's meant to aspire to the kind of collegial atmosphere that the magic have built under
Jamal Mosley and this kind of togetherness that this team has.
It is cute.
But in so many of the magic playoff successes over the last three years, it has become not
just this cute little saying in this cute little phrase and this nice marketing slogan that
maybe you like, maybe you don't.
It's actually been the most important thing.
And game six, two years ago against Cleveland Cavaliers, yeah, Palo had a great game and
a big shot.
But it was the coal Anthony put back offensive rebound that clinched that game.
Similarly, it took everybody and it has taken everybody for the magic to overcome what
is despite what this series looks like at the moment, a very good Detroit Pistons team,
a 60 win Detroit Pistons team.
I know y'all hate me for giving the other team a lot of credit, but this is a really good
Pistons team that the magic are outworking, outtuffing, out physically, out Mosley and
just plain beating.
They don't have the best player in the series.
That is Kate Cunningham and I do want to talk a little bit more about him later on in the
show as well as a little bit more on him on Monday's episode, the four game four.
Kate Cunningham is by far the best player in the series.
And he is and has shown himself very capable of taking over games and giving the Pistons
their chances and both game one and now in game three.
It was Kate Cunningham who led the rally that got the Pistons into the lead by one point
after trailing by 15 early in the fourth quarter.
It was Kate Cunningham that had everybody probably in the world believing, oh, there's
the same old Orlando magic.
But this is what the magic did during the timeout when the game was tied at 104 and the
Pistons did eventually take a 104 lead because the magic didn't score out of that timeout.
The magic kind of looked each other in the eye and said zero, zero, four minutes to play.
And from then on, the magic dominated after after fouling Kate and giving him and the
Franz was kind of a cheeky foul, but after fouling Kate, they gave a nine oh run.
They gave this team the finish that they needed and wasn't because of one player, although
Franz had five of those nine points.
Palo had three of them on a three that bounced way high off the back of iron and in late
in the game.
I'm going to talk about what Palo and Franz it because what they did was important.
But it was more about the defense because the magic did score the last nine points of
the game.
They got down and they defended ugly defense blocking a cage shot late, digging out a rebound,
making these ugly, ugly plays and at the end of the day, like everything the magic
are doing is built on trust.
That Franz Wagner three is only three point make of the game came because Palo drove to
the middle lane and kicked it out to France didn't try and force something.
I don't want to talk more specifically about Palo's game in a minute because Palo had
a really like a not like an old time or playoff game, but a really good playoff game.
Doing almost exactly what the magic need from him on his bad shooting games and he could
have bet I'm the star I'm going to force that shot, but instead he trusted his teammate.
Trust is everywhere with this team and that's why it is everybody because everybody on this
team had a part to play in getting this victory and we're going to go through the box
score and get to all that stuff, but it was, you know, Palo's consistency, it was Desmond
Bay hitting seven of nine from three, which probably gets buried because he didn't make
many of them in the fourth quarter, magic needed to get him more involved.
We could get into all that.
It was when no Carter grabbing 17 rebounds and making Jalen Durham look completely
unplayable during recovery and that is a bit a bit of concern, but they made them put
Paul read it because Jalen Durham couldn't do anything.
It was Jamal Cain coming off the bench for seven points, making a huge tree and probably
adding another which didn't get taken off the board.
It was again, all five starters and double figures for Orlando, a very big key, all five
starters for the magic with a positive plus minus.
It was the magic keeping their turnovers low and digging in defensively, running a switching
scheme on Cade Gunning M that mostly bottled him up and mostly made his life very, very difficult
even if he had little pockets where he could score.
That doesn't happen because one player is great.
That doesn't happen because the team is fractured and all over the place.
That happens because there's been three years of trust built with this team and maybe
the one advantage we haven't talked enough about in this series is that for the most part,
this magic team has more playoff experience than the pistons.
Like yeah, the pistons took the next to six last year.
But this magic team has been through these battles before and for whatever criticisms
that people want to lay at the pistons, and certainly national criticism of the pistons
is that it's just Cade, it's only Cade.
The magic do have more, they can find a way to deploy their offensive weapons correctly.
They do have more, but that's been kind of the problem all season.
It's not just that they don't deploy their offensive weapons correctly.
It's that there has been some fracture.
This team hasn't always been on the same page.
This group hasn't always been able to execute the way that they need to execute.
And when things get hard, they do tend to like go into a ball.
That's what happened in game two.
This magic team wants to be a lot better.
Like again, even through all the worst parts of this season, you could tell they were trying
to figure out and just maybe not finding it completely.
But now that the chips are down, everyone was oh no, last week.
Now that the chips are down, now that the playoffs are here, that trust, that belief, that
camaraderie, that whatever you want to call it, is all there.
And it has led the magic to this a one 13105 victory where they led by as much as 17 in
the fourth quarter, where they were in control for most of the game, outplaying out physically
one of the most physical teams in the league, making them extremely uncomfortable, still
making a ton of mistakes, but not letting that waver their defensive effort, not letting
that take them down as much as anything else.
As Franz Wagner said after the game, they felt leaving game two that that was more about
their mistakes than what Detroit did and I tend to agree, not that Detroit's bad, Detroit's
very, very good.
But that was about the magic's mistakes and how the magic let those mistakes compound.
That did not happen one bit in game three.
And so all that trust, all that experience together, all of that came to the front.
And I got the magic humongous win to stay up in this series and have the potential to go up
three one on their home four on Monday. Of course, it was a close game.
It did require some clutch finishing and we did see some of those familiar magic frustrations.
But this time, Palo and Franz stepped up how the magic's two stars delivered coming up here
in just a moment.
But first, today's episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to my friends over at Indeed Workplace chaos,
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our friends over at Fandall. The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters,
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really matters. We're looking at stars, role players and key moments. It just makes the entire
playoff experience that much better. I don't know if we're going to have the line out quite yet
for game four. I'm going to check it real fast. It is still Saturday afternoon, but game four line
is out actually. And the pistons are once again favored by two and a half. The scene amount
they were favored by entry today's game. So if you want to jump in and say, Hey, the magic
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You want to thank you again for making Lockdown Magic part of your day every day. We want to
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Or if you haven't done so already, go check out our every day or club because who knows,
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If you're in that server, you get access to my three thoughts after every quarter. I should kind
of share what I'm thinking about, what I'm watching, what I'm noticing. As the game is going on,
that is not public. That is only four by subscribers. You can check it out today at lockdownmagic.supercast.com.
That's lockdownmagic.supercast.com. As much as I want to give love to the role players,
and look, we should. Jalen Sucks had a really good game. Desmond Payne had a really good game.
Wendell Carter had a really good game. Anthony Blapt had some good things. Jamal Cainless
fantastic. We'll get to all of those guys coming up here at our third segment when we go through
the box. We're going to talk a little bit about where the magic are going to continue to hit some
road bumps and why this is still a series. Nothing's won yet. We're halfway there, but nothing is won
yet. Playoff games still come down to your stars. Playoff games still come down to the ability of
your best players to make tough shots and to be factors when the game is online. The magic had
Kate Cunningham in handcuffs all game long. This is as bad as good as you're going to play against
Kate Cunningham. He finished with 27 points. He was just eight for 23 from the fourth, three for 10
from three. He had five rebounds, nine assists, and nine turnovers. Huge credit. I want to talk more
about Franz Wagner's defense on Kate Cunningham on Monday's episode, but just absolutely fantastic
defensive game plan on Kate Cunningham. This series, they had seven turnovers on Wednesday. It is
not a flute that he's starting to ball over. The magic I think are doing a good job mixing up when
they switch when they don't and kind of throwing them off on that front when they switch. They're
very aggressive on their switching. It's been really, really effective. So I do want to give that
it's due course and talk a little bit more about that in the near future.
But he stepped up in the fourth quarter. He got to the foul line. I think he had six free throws,
five five or six free throws in the in the fourth quarter. He was able to get to a spot,
get shots. The magic defense got loose. And frankly, he just beat some pretty good defense.
That's what stars do. And argue with me about it if you want, but Kate Cunningham is the best
player in this series. And it is a truism and is a maxim that if you have the best player in the
series, you have a really good chance of winning. The magic stars have been inconsistent.
Like I hope that's not controversial. Say Frans Vager is still very clearly working his way back
from the injury. Again, it's been a few weeks. He's he's getting better. Like his defense has gotten
back. Like he's back to playing really, really strong defense, which I think is more important.
But offensively, he still looks a step slow. It doesn't quite have the burst and explosiveness that
he's had in the past. And it's been a bit of a struggle.
Palo Bancaro has had this weird up and down season. Like even admitted, like he missed two
dunks in this game and he can't understand why. It's been that kind of a series. It's been that
kind of a season for Palo. And he's been searching all year for the right way to make an impact.
All that matters in these games again, like we could go for the narrative all we want. But
ultimately what determines the narrative of the series and the narrative of each player and each team
is whether you win or not. That is all that freaking matters. Whether you win the basketball,
and that's what the magic did. So obviously we're going to talk about things in
a positive light. I don't think I would have talked negatively about Palo in this game.
If the magic had lost, it would just been like, okay, like he just doesn't have it. Like we saw,
he's close. We saw that he can do some things, but he just doesn't have it.
But those last four minutes with the game in the balance, the magic star stepped up. And it was
really no one else. The magic's two stars took them home. Shot clock winding down, down by one,
Franz Wagner. It's a crazy turnaround jumper over the defense. A shot that you see hasn't been
hidden. Since he came back from the injury, he nails it. And then the next play after the
magic get a stop. And again, the defense was the thing. Magic held the helmet pistons scoreless
after they took the 105-104 lead. After the magic get a stop, they get back out and transition.
Palo isolates, I think Tobias Harris, I think that's who he isolated. Got to the middle lane, got
the defense to collapse, kicked it to Franz. And Franz, who's been struggling from three,
so it's coming back, hits this humongous shot. Now the magic grew up four.
And then Palo falls up with the three that just hung in the air. The basketball gods blessed him
for taking the shot, bounced up in the air and bounced right back in. Even he seemed surprised
that it finally fell in. And the magic have their victory. Game over, because their defense wasn't
given an inch after after that timeout. Their defense wasn't really given much to Detroit and they
bottled up Cade down the stretch. Baker mislead, right? It's for Palo specifically though, it's not
just that late game success. Palo had a weird game. Like you look at the box score, you're not going
to be super impressed. He was six for 17 from four, two for five from three. Not super impressive stuff.
But even when he was struggling to make shots, I think he was three for 13 at one point.
Even when he was struggling to make shots, you could see him like fill in the box score.
He ended with 12 rebounds. He ended with nine assists. This would have been one heck of a triple double.
He was still always aggressive, but never too aggressive. Then he kind of lose the plot or
slow the game down too much. The ball really moved. Like there was a flow to this team,
even though they weren't shooting great, there was a flow to this team. And yeah, making some
threes early that does mean being hit seven threes made his first five in the game.
All of that is super duper important. And yeah, we'll talk a little bit more about
Beth Desherman. All of that is really, really important. But what's important is that Palo kept that
pressure on. Palo did not slow down just because the shots weren't falling. He stayed committed on
defense. I thought his defense was pretty solid today. Still one of the weaker links on the team,
but that's because there's good defensive team. He made plays. He helped with Durham,
like helped a ton with Durham. And so inevitably, like, there was this positive impact throughout the
course of the game. Palo finished with a plus six plus minus. And like, obviously, the run at the
end of the game, a big part of that. My magic brought him in a little earlier to try and step
the tide. And Palo was scoring with Kate. He was going shot for shot with Kate for a little
bit. It was just like, oh, they're getting free throws. Palo had a shot blocked at the rim. Like,
there's still a lot for Palo to recover. And I don't want to make this all about Palo, but Palo is
a big part of this. But Palo, whereas maybe a month ago, two months ago, like, he'd let some of
these struggles affect his energy. Like that's been my thing all year with him is you can't let the
frustration affect your energy. You've still got to give this team something. You got to find a
way to contribute. And that's what refreshing this season has done. Refreshing the season saying,
we're oh, no, heading into the playoffs has revitalized this team and their mindset and their
energy. And Palo is a playoff performer. Like, he's not putting up the gaudy stats that he put
up against Boston or against Cleveland. But this dude is a playoff performer. And the biggest
thing that he is learning to do and the biggest thing that he has done this series and what he did
tonight is find a way to contribute, find a way to make a positive impact. That's what superstars
do. That's what all stars do. Can't cutting him struggled with that for a good chunk of the game.
Not that the pistons were worse with him on the floor. But Kane could only score. Magic did
such a good job kind of bottling him up, keeping him kind of in their box that they want to keep
him in. And he couldn't do much else besides score. And when you tried to pass, he turned to
ball over as much as he was getting assists. That's that's good defense. Number one, the stars just
find a way. And yeah, enemy playoffs are about your stars. Magic don't win this game without
Palo and Frons. And Palo and Frons are really struggling the first half of Magic led by eight at
halftime. And I, I think I told people in the discord server, they're going to need one of
Palo or Frons to step up and finish this game. And what did Palo do? This is how the Magic built
their lead. Palo got to the Fallon. He had eight free throw attempts in the third quarter.
He stayed aggressive, especially when Jalen Durham went out. He went at Paul Reed.
That's what stars do. And most importantly, stars finish games. There's been a lot of
questions about Palo and Frons. And a lot of them in legitimate Palo had a rough season.
Did not have the season everyone imagined he would have. Frons is coming back from the
century. He does not look 100% or does not look like full playoff level Frons.
The Magic needed both to step up and close this game after after the way Detroit came back.
And they both delivered. Game set match. Let's run through the rest of the box,
we're then we'll talk a little about where the Magic found a lot of success, where the Magic
still struggled. We'll get to that coming up here in just a moment.
But first today's episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to by our friends over at Game
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This is Jake from Lockdown. When the game's on the line, the best no end to pass. Because the
right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your state
farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the
unexpected, they'll help set you up with a game plan that works for you. Like a good neighbor,
state farm is there. Covered options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility
vary by state. As we do after every game, once it runs with the final box scores,
they're line of magic to feed the Detroit Pistons 113-105. Big game from Powell Bank,
Carol, 25 points, 11 from 14 from the line. Make a free dose. 12 rebounds, 9 assists,
only three turnovers. Added two blocks, just a really, really solid game for Powell. Again,
I wouldn't call this an all-timer game from Powell. I wouldn't call this a, oh, he did everything
right. And this is why he's a super-duper star. But when you're struggling, this is the kind of
game you have to have. Still making a positive impact, finding ways to fill the box score,
finding ways to make things happen. Huge credit to Powell. He played awesome. Desmond being also
added 25 points. And frankly, we are not talking enough about Desmond Bane on the show and save
him for Monday. But this was a, this is why you get Desmond Bane. Desmond Bane was eager to come
back out here tonight. Was eager to make some shots after missing them in games one and two. And
eager to put his stamp on this game. Bane finished with 25 points, nine for 18 shooting, seven for
nine from three. Seven rebounds, really just a strong, strong game. But when he makes threes,
obviously, this team is very, very different. Look, a big reason why the magic won is they went
15 for 33 from three. There was going to be a game in the series where the magic made threes.
And frankly, I'm not sure this is the one and certainly the one for Desmond. I don't think he's
going to make seven threes in another game. That's that tied a magic playoff record held by Dennis Scott.
I don't think this will, this will be, I think there will be another like three or four. Desmond
won't have another seven three point game. But I think there might be another hot shooting three point
game was really not a lot of other players shot well from three. Jalen Suggs was three for eight,
which is okay. He had some big ones though. Wendell Carter was over five. Palabin Carrot, two for five.
Franz Wagner, one for two. It's a black one for three. This might be the shooting game. And so
like the magic had to win the shooting game. That's a big, that's a big thing for me. It's like,
okay, there's going to be some outlier games here now. I'll talk a little about Detroit's outlier
game and why this is a bit of a problem for the distance in a moment. But Desmond Bane going off
like that just it's again, it sets the tone. You made five three pointers in the game. It's first five
three pointers. He got really hot early. And that just gives this team so much confidence. You know,
reason why the ball is moving so much is they trust everyone to make shots. That trust diminishes.
That's why I think trust is such a big thing in this in this series. That trust diminishes when
they miss some of those open shots. And that's when he starts to keep pressing trying to force things,
turning the ball over a little bit more. But they're moving the ball and they trust each other to
make shots like that changes everything for this team. And and makes this offense look like
functional. It makes this offense look good. I'm going to pull up their
advanced box score here in a minute so I can give you their offensive rating. Or Lando finished
with an offensive rating of 117.7, which is pretty good, especially against this defense.
109.4 defensive rating is very, very good. So magic. Again, just a really complete effort. Again,
just you get you don't want offense to dictate your defensive energy. But when you're making shots,
it's a lot easier to defend because A, they're set. You don't have to worry about fast breaks.
And B, you're just feeling good. You're feeling confident. So that's what Desmond Bain did for the
team. A really fantastic game. He didn't cramp up a little bit at the end. Magic do need to make
it a point to keep him involved. I felt like in the fourth quarter, one of the reasons why they gave
up the lead is they started to slow to a crawl. And again, it's it's not wrong to bleed the clock.
But their offense was just moving slowly. They were trying to force the ball to palo and keep
delivered and got some shots there. But they're trying to force the ball to palo or fronds.
They weren't kind of running through sets. The ball wasn't moving side to side. It was just kind
of sticking in one quarter. That's something they got to correct. Again, you just got to keep the ball
moving when the ball was moving. Orlando at 21 assists on 36 field goal makes. Again, you want to
get that assist number a little bit higher up. But generally, I felt like throughout the game,
Orlando had good ball movement. They were they were hunting each other. They're they're they're
sharing the ball really, really well. And in the fourth quarter, things just kind of stalled a little
bit. We mentioned Jalen Suggs 15 points five for 12 shooting three for eight from three huge
three pointers in this game did have five fouls three really silly fouls at the end of the second
quarter that that that probably this probably should have been like a 12 13 point game at halftime
instead. It was eight purely just on Jalen Suggs Valley in the last two minutes. So got to be a
little bit more precise on that again. There's just these little mistakes like a turnover at the
wrong time. Too much fouling excessive fouling in this game. That's that's the biggest thing to
clean up is the magic just can't get in their own way. They just they left the door open
and Detroit was struggling to walk through it and then suddenly Detroit was through that door.
And they're like, Oh, they're here. Shoot. You know, magic responded well. Of course,
they were lost. This game was terrible. And and this game was in the balance like this was not
a game you could lose with the way that you played early in the in the contest. The magic took
their business. They got the win. You could breathe a sigh relief. They'll be more work to do for
Monday's game. Window Carter, the humble beast man, 14 points, five for nine shooting,
17 rebounds, eight offensive rebounds, did have four turnovers, something to work on,
some of them, some of them fouls, but he is he is completely outplaying Jalen Duren. Jalen Duren
is a non factor in the series. Like they played him off the floor. Like the pissants took him
with the game because of foul trouble, but frankly, he was just so ineffective. He is he does not
look like he is enjoying himself. The magic are pushing and grabbing and shoving him and
keeping him from getting to a spot. They're they're they're blocking him from rolling to the basket
effectively. Even when they switch, the pissants can't get the ball to him in advantageous
positions. And when he does get the ball, they're collapsing around him and really just again,
like the huge credit, Orlando is rebounding really well. Detroit's the best offense or second
best offensive rebounding team in the league. They only had 10 offensive rebounds in this game.
They finished with 17 second shades points. There's probably still too many. Orlando beat them on
second shades points with 19. And frankly, they were seven for 15. They should have gotten more.
Orlando had 14 offensive rebounds there. First ones to the glass. Really a lot of those 10 came in
the third quarter. I don't think the trick converted on many of them, but that's like again,
things where the door was left open. Orlando was just outworking them at almost every turn. And so
the pistons, they're not getting what they need from Durham, who's an All-Star and
deservedly an All-Star. It's had a fantastic season, but they are not getting what they need from
Durham. It is showing. And the fact that I mentioned this before the series that
Wendow Carter is going to have a very big factor to play in this series. If Wendow Carter,
I don't even think I said beat Durham. If Wendow Carter can break even or just be a little behind
Durham, you just have to be competitive in that matchup. If you could do that, the magic had a
real chance to win this series. Carter's beating him. That's why the magic are up to one.
Wendow Carter is making Jalen Dern like nobody. He is actively hurting Jalen Dern's negotiating
stance in his contract extension this summer. We didn't talk too much about Franz Wagner,
17 points, 7 for 18 shooting, 5 rebounds, 5 assists. I noted this in my preview on Orlando
Magic Daily. This series is really about starters versus starters. So when Franz Wagner
played tonight, he was plus 19. Magic were plus 19 in Franz's minutes. Obviously, he's still only
playing 3350. He's not playing his full cop of minutes, but they're starting to bump up closer
to it. He's still playing in shorter stents. You can still see him getting very, very tired out there.
But having Franz on the floor changes the whole geometry of the court and changes everything
for the magic. The pistons are treating him like he is fully healthy. And maybe one of the adjustments
in this series is if he catches the ball, wall him up and crowd him, but we don't need to worry
about him the same way we might. That honestly might be the big adjustment for the pistons is like
saying, Franz isn't going to beat us. Or let's play Franz as if he's at half speed or at 60%
or whatever it is. Honestly, if I'm Detroit, that's how I think I have to play him and not worry
about him as much. Because he's out there as a decoy. And you're treating him like he's full
Franz. He's got a struggle. He's got a struggle. And maybe that's what they want. I don't know,
but it's taking away from other things. So Franz is having a major effect. And again,
starter versus starters. I think this is a big, big point in this series.
All five magic starters, positive plus minus. And again, a lot of them in during the run in the
fourth quarter. So it's a big thing. Magic starters were all positive plus minus at game one,
all negative in game two. Obviously third quarter one was a big part of that. Today's game,
Osar Thompson, who was fantastic. This is a game that the, the, the pistons could not afford to lose
because Osar Thompson was so good. 17 points, two steals, eight rebounds, four offensive rebounds,
seven for 10 shooting. That's a game that the pistons have to win. When Osar score 17 like this,
they have to win. They didn't win. I don't know if Osar Thompson's going to have another scoring
game like this. Certainly he's causing havoc on defense. He was minus 10 in this game. Again,
he was so impactful defensively. Even in this game, the pistons had a one, the pistons had a
one 15.4 defensive rating with Osar in. That was almost the best of their, their starters, but
he's hugely impactful and is a non factor in the series. I was a non factor in this game. We're
not a non factor, but, but he's hugely impactful and the pistons couldn't win his minutes. Minus 10,
Tobias Harris had a great game. 23 points. Magic can't afford to let Tobias Harris get
loose like he did tonight. I think they want Tobias Harris to beat them. So the fact of the
magic won a game that where Tobias Harris did beat them and made some big shots. 23 points,
eight for 16 minus seven. Jalen Durin, as poorly as he played, eight points signed rebounds,
found out plus zero broke even. Duncan Robinson, three for seven from three, minus eight,
ten points for him. Kate Cunningham, 27 points, only plus two. And obviously again, a lot of
that coming at the end of the game, the magic starters won the game. Magic starters beat the
piston starts. It's not rocket science. Your best five versus our best five, the magic's best five
won the game. And I think that's huge for them. The Orlando Magic shoot 40.4% from four. So there's
still a lot of room to grow on that end. They're 26 or 33 from the foul line, getting more than,
I think the two keys in this series for the magic are get more than 30 free throws. Did that in
game two, but they lost, but getting more than 30 free throws is big. Turning them all over
fewer than 15 times. 14 turnovers for 19 points, not the best showing from them. When Detroit was at
their best, they were forcing turnovers, getting out and transition, magic need to just get them
up against their half court defense. Pissons, half court offense isn't great, but the magic are
set in their defense. They're pretty good. They've been good this series. At least they haven't
been pretty good all year. They've been good this series. Get the like not allowing them to get those
extra opportunities is huge. Winning the possession battles huge. Magic did that. They 416
turnovers got 24 points. They converted off the turnovers. Big part and they're still the
points left on the board. Big part of why the magic won this game. Like I mentioned, and we'll look
more ahead to game four on Monday, but I think Orlando's flow and movement was really good for the
first three and a half quarters. And then I think they slowed down too much and they went into
clock killing mode. That's been a problem all year. Magic need to continue to execute, keep moving,
keep playing and a good energy and a good flow. And they could have won this game running away.
Having said that, this is the magic. And they still fell into that bad habit. They still gave
away the lead. It was a clutch game only because they gave away the lead. They made the place they
had to make down the stretch. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters. We're all only
going to care that they want. But the magic continue to this this series continues to be about the
magic and less about the pistons. And again, I say that with all due respect to the pistons
and and and and understanding and acknowledging they are a great team and are in a big factor in
what I'm talking about here. But this series is all about how the magic execute. If the magic play
together, move the ball, share the ball, play with energy, make shots, not not always a given with
this team. If they do all those things, they are the ones in control. They've been more physical.
They've been more determined. They've been they've outworked this pistons team in two of the three
games. If the magic if the magic defense is a given now and maybe it shouldn't be, but it let's
let's call it a given now. This series comes down to whether the magic are able to crack the
pistons defense and they have been able to get good shots. Even in game two, they got good shots.
They missed them, but they got good shots. The pistons are still really tough in the interior.
The magic cannot let those frustrations beat them like it did in game two. But that's still about
the magic. It's not about the pistons. And so frankly, yes, Orlando's shakier because of what we
saw during the regular season. Like we haven't seen them do and play the way that they played in games
one and three consistently over the last six months. But the way they played in this series,
this is their series to lose. They're up to one. They've got home quarter vantage. Detroit's
going to come back stronger and harder on Monday. They're going to they're going to they're going
to come out and they're going to try and hit first. They're going to be more physical like
expect magic being bonus early again like they were on on on Wednesday. Orlando's going to have
to withstand all that and be resilient. And that's something that they were very good at in game one
and very good at tonight. But there's still a lot of work to do and Orlando can't keep that door
open. They can't make self-inflicted mistakes that cost them. Chances to win. Chances to close games
out. And that will be the challenge. That will be the big challenge heading into Monday.
But let's say it unequivocally now up to one halfway halfway to the second round. Home
court advantage. This is the magic series to lose. I'm not I'm not going to say full-throatedly
they're the better team. But they are much closer than the pistons certainly want to believe.
And a game three victory kind of tells them like hey you can't take us lightly anymore. We're here
and if you're not careful we're going to be heading back to Detroit one one away from upsetting you
guys. All that talk that Detroit's like over the one scene we've we've reestablished control.
Throw that out the window. Detroit's in a fight. And if they're not ready to fight the
the magic are going to beat them. That's exactly what they did in game three.
I want to thank you all again for listening to today's episode of Lockdown Magic.
Of course find me on Twitter at Philip R underscore on D and on blue sky if it works today
I'll at Philip RRE because subscribe to the podcast. I'm Apple Podcasts.
Children in Hemley, Google, Spotify, Odyssey and all of my seasonal podcasts do your podcasts
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For the latest on the Orlando Magic. Be sure to check out Orlando Magic Daily.com. You can find
us on Twitter at oh magic daily in for even more Orlando Magic content. Be sure to check out my
patreon page, your land magic hub at patreon.com slash Orlando Magic Hub or check out our every day
or club at lockdownmagic.supercast.com. That's lockdownmagic.supercast.com as always. Thank you
for your support. Now that you're listening to us if you're on video we're going to send you
to the first ever 24 seven National NBA YouTube channel on audio. Make sure you make your second
listen NBA game night on lockdown and be where I'm sure they'll be singing the praises of the
Orlando Magic or just completely befuddled that the magic are up to one in the series. Probably
both. Well, you'll hear from them on Lockdown NBA tomorrow. We'll be back on Monday Sunday night,
Monday morning to chat about the magic and resilience in this series. Desmond Bane and what the
magic need to do to get a game for victory. We'll see you all Monday. Have a great weekend of
Orlando Magic. Defeat the Detroit visits 113 to 105 from the key center. This has been Phil
Ross Wright of Lockdown Magic. We'll end the magic video. See y'all get next time for another episode
of Lockdown Magic.

Locked On Magic - Daily Podcast On The Orlando Magic

Locked On Magic - Daily Podcast On The Orlando Magic

Locked On Magic - Daily Podcast On The Orlando Magic
