Beede's Breakdown: Magic collapse in the 2nd half as Pistons force Game 7

The Magic collapsed and now a Game 7 on the road awaits.

After building a 24-point lead inside a rowdy Kia Center during Game 6 on Friday night, the Magic squandered the opportunity to close out an NBA playoff series at home under coach Jamahl Mosley, crumbled in the second half and fell to the Pistons 93-79 in front of a national TV audience on Prime Video.

Leading top-seeded Detroit 3-2 in their best-of-seven first-round series entering Game 6, eighth-seeded Orlando finally had the chance to accomplish something 16 years in the making.

Instead, the series is tied 3-3, and Game 7 will be Sunday afternoon back inside Little Caesars Arena in Detroit (3:30 p.m., ABC).

“You’ve got to wash it,” Mosley said after the 14-point loss. “You’ve got to learn from it, you’ve got to go get Game 7 and you’ve got to do it the hard way.”

Behind a game-high 32 points from Montverde Academy product Cade Cunningham, the Pistons stormed back in the second half and limited Orlando to just 19 points after the break (11 in the third and eight in the fourth). Tobias Harris added 22 points for Detroit.

Once leading the series 3-1, the Magic will have to rally in a win-or-go home Game 7 on the road Sunday in order to advance out of the first round for the first time since 2010.

“The series ain’t over,” said Magic forward Paolo Banchero. “They’ve clawed their way to tie it up 3-3. We’ve won a game there to start the series. And we’ve just got to go do it again. So, (we) can’t hang our heads. We’ve got to go to sleep, wake up, get on the plane with a clear mind and do whatever we’ve got to do to get the win.”

Second-half swing

The Magic led by 22 points, 60-38, at the half but the Pistons threw the first punch out of the break. And they kept punching.

Detroit turned up the heat on defense while Orlando’s offense came to a complete halt. The Magic became stagnant and settled for poor shots while the Pistons took full advantage of Orlando’s mistakes.

The Pistons outscored the Magic 24-11 in the third quarter and followed that up with a 16-1 run to open the fourth. After falling behind by as many as 24 points, the Pistons led 74-72 halfway through the final frame.

“At the end of the day, a lot of shots didn’t fall for us in that situation,” Mosley said. “We had some good looks and they didn’t drop. Some of those long balls were able to lead to leak outs. They got some early ones, saw the ball go through the hole and they were flying around.”

Detroit outscored Orlando 55-19 in the second half; the Magic’s 23 consecutive misses were the most by any playoff team this century, according to ESPN Insights.

Bane’s buckets

Magic guard Desmond Bane came out firing when he opened 3-for-3 from 3-point range to post a team-high 15 points in the first half.

He only scored two points in the second half.

After hitting his first three triples, Bane missed his next six.

“It’s going to be hard to win games when you score 19 points in a half,” said Bane, who finished with 17 points to tie Banchero for the team lead. “I thought a lot of that was because they came out with more energy.”

Orlando didn’t have much help from their other starting guard either; Jalen Suggs shot 1-for-10 from the field and scored just seven points. Suggs added seven rebounds and seven assists.

Banchero up-and-down

The Magic superstar forward got off to a slow start by opening 1-for-6 from the field, including missing his first four 3-pointers.

Banchero was still able to reach 10 points at the break after he scored six points in the final 2½ minutes of the second quarter. His shooting woes, however, continued into the second half when he missed three more 3s and shot just 3-for-14 through the first three quarters.

In the fourth specifically, Banchero shot 1-for-7 from the field. He totaled 10 rebounds and six assists to go with his 17 points.

“They just turned up their defensive pressure and we got caught on our heels,” Banchero said. “And then game pressure builds. They went on a pretty big run there and we didn’t score.”

Bench boost

Mosley made a change to his rotation by turning to veteran guard Jevon Carter for his first meaningful minutes of the series. Carter checked into the game at the 5:04 mark of the first quarter and knocked down his first jumper but only played two minutes in the first half.

Elsewhere off the bench, the Magic received major contributions from reserves Tristan da Silva, Goga Bitadze and Anthony Black.

The German forward da Silva hit his first 3-pointer to help notch seven first-half points. He and Black hit back-to-back 3s midway through the third quarter after Detroit got within 10 points of the Magic.

Black notched eight points while da Silva added 10 points and six rebounds.

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Bitadze made his presence felt on both ends by racking up six points and four rebounds.

Orlando’s bench outscored Detroit’s 26-13.

Second-chance scoring

The Magic only scored two second-chance points in the opening quarter but took advantage of their extra opportunities in the second frame by notching 11 second-chance points across the 12-minute span.

Detroit was able to respond in the third quarter with six second-chance points and held the Magic to zero second-chance points that same stretch.

Ultimately, both teams finished with 14 second-chance points.

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com

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This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 10:37 PM.