Pistons flip 3-1 deficit, advance

The Pistons just pulled off the kind of playoff swing that changes how a team gets talked about. Detroit looked headed for a first-round collapse, then won three straight, including a Game 6 comeback from 24 points down and a 116-94 blowout of Orlando in Game 7 on May 3. That pushed the Pistons into the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since 2008. It also turned a good regular season into something much heavier — proof that this group can take a punch and keep playing. (nba.com) ### How bad did it look? Pretty bad. Detroit was the East’s No. 1 seed at 60-22, but Orlando had them down 3-1 in the series. Then Game 6 got even uglier — the Pistons trailed by 24 points before flipping the whole night and winning 93-79. That was the hinge point. Without that rally, this is a collapse story. With it, the series suddenly became a test of nerve. (espn([nba.com)ons-magic)) ### What changed in Game 7? Detroit stopped making the game feel fragile. Cade Cunningham controlled everything, finishing with 32 points and 12 assists, while Tobias Harris added 30. Orlando got 38 from Paolo Banchero, but the rest of the offense never really kept pace, and the Pistons turned the game into a rout instead of another late scramble. That(espn.com)g different. (nba.com) ### Why does Cunningham matter so much here? Because this is the series where he stopped looking like a promising lead guard and started looking like the engine of a serious playoff team. In the Game 6 comeback, he scored 32, including 19 in the fourth quarter. Then he came right back with 32 and 12 in Game 7. Basically, Detroit’s season was hanging by a thread, and Cunningham was the player who kept grabbing it. (espn.com) ### Was this just one star getting hot? Not really. Harris giving Detroit 30 in Game 7 mattered a lot, and the broader point is that the Pistons didn’t survive only on shot-making luck. They defended, they steadied themselves after the series turned against them, and they got enough secondary scoring to keep Orlando from loading everything onto Cunning(espn.com)more proven. (nba.com) ### What happened to Orlando? The Magic had control of the series and let it slip. The cleanest example is Game 6, when they built that huge lead and then went ice-cold while Detroit stormed back. By the time Game 7 arrived, the pressure had clearly shifted. Banchero still produced, but the series had moved onto Detroit’s terms — more physical, more confident, less panicked. (espn.com) ### So what’s next for Detroit? Cleveland. The Cavaliers beat Toronto 114-102 in their own Game 7 on May 3, with Jarrett Allen posting 22 points and 19 rebounds, and that sets up the semifinal matchup. So the Pistons’ reward for surviving one seven-game scare is another one against a team that also had to grind to get here. (espn.com)than one round? Because Detroit hadn’t won a playoff series in 18 years. That kind of drought changes the emotional scale of everything. This wasn’t just advancement — it was a franchise finally getting a postseason breakthrough, and doing it after staring at elimination and then yanking the series back anyway. (nba.com) The Pistons didn’t just advance. They rewrote the shape of their season in about 96 hours. Now comes the harder question — whether a team that learned how to survive can also learn how to contend.