Pistons erase 22‑point hole

Detroit looked dead at halftime. Orlando led by 22, the building was loud, and the No. 8 seed was one half from knocking out the East’s top seed. Then the game flipped so hard it barely looked like the same sport. The Pistons beat the Magic 93-79 on Friday night, erased a 24-point deficit, and dragged this first-round series to a Game 7 in Detroit on Sunday. (espn.com) ### How bad was it for Detroit? Really bad. Orlando led 60-38 at halftime after a brutal second quarter that Detroit lost 35-12. Early in the third, the Magic pushed the margin to 62-38, and that felt like the end of the story. Instead, it became the high-water mark before a collapse. (nba.com) ### So what changed? Defense first — and then everything else followed. Detroit held Orlando to 19 total points in the second half. The Magic did not make a field goal for the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter, which is the kind of drought that turns (nba.com)ter halftime. (giantswire.usatoday.com) ### Who carried the comeback? Cade Cunningham was the engine. He finished with 32 points and kept scoring while Orlando’s offense froze. That mattered because this was not one (giantswire.usatoday.com)ile its defense strangled the game. Cunningham did that. (espn.com) ### Why does 19 second-half points matter so much? Because that is historic failure territory. Orlando’s 19 points after halftime were the fewest in a half in NBA playoff history. That tells you this was not just a blown lead. It was a total offensive shutdown — bad shots(espn.com)rted loading up every possession. (africa.espn.com) ### What happened to Orlando? The Magic got the exact nightmare version of a closeout game. Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane scored 17 each, but the offense disappeared when the pressure rose. Orlando also entered the game without Franz Wagner, and by the second (africa.espn.com)hat had been 24 minutes from a huge upset is now 0-2 in closeout chances in this series. (nba.com) ### Why is this such a big deal for Detroit? Because top seeds are not supposed to spend a series like this flirting with disaster against an 8 seed. Detroit won the East’s No. 1 spot, then spent six games getting dragged into Orlando’s kind of series — slow(nba.com)ike a team that could survive that style when everything went wrong first. (nba.com) ### What does Game 7 look like now? It looks completely different from what it did at halftime Friday. Instead of Orlando finishing the upset at home, the series goes back to Little Caesars Arena for Game 7 on Sunday, May 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Mom(nba.com)this matchup even when the game starts as a disaster. (nba.com) ### Bottom line This was a comeback, but more than that it was a stress test. Detroit found a way out of a game that should have ended its season. Orlando now has to walk into Game 7 carrying one of the ugliest playoff collapses the league has seen in years. (espn.com)