The Orlando Magic made NBA history Sunday night, becoming the first No. 8 seed to lead a Game 1 from start to finish in a 112-101 victory over the Detroit Pistons. The win captured national attention as analysts weigh whether Orlando can pull off one of the greatest series upsets in league history.

Paolo Banchero led the Magic with 23 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Franz Wagner added 19 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter to secure the win. Desmond Bane and Wendell Carter Jr. each contributed 17 points, while Jalen Suggs finished with 16.

The performance caught the eye of Bill Simmons, who noted on The Ringer that this Magic roster differs from the one seen earlier this season. Simmons suggested the team has caught fire at the exact right time, shifting the narrative around the Eastern Conference playoffs.

“Well, Detroit, you know, all the things they do to exert their will and their physicality on everybody else don't work as well against Orlando,” Simmons said. “Because Orlando's is big and strong and nasty as the pistons are, and you said, you said a key word, which is health. Anthony Black is back, and Franz Wagner is back. And like, maybe that's just part of what this is and why we didn't see this team together the whole year when Suggs is in now the lineup, I've called him to sort of skeleton key of their team before, 

“Their starting five has been good all year when healthy,” Simmons added. “They're just never healthy, but they played so goddamn hard on both ends of the floor. It was so much force, so much speed, so much decisiveness, that part of me was like, and I mean this in a sort of backhanded way, are they like the least accomplished flip the switch team in the history of the NBA? Have they been like waiting to play this hard all year and they just barely scrounge in by the eight seed, because this was a completely different team than some of the bad lay and egg games they've had.

Zach Lowe chipped in his thoughts, leaning in the Magic’s favor.

“This game,” Lowe said. “It was like, you wouldn't have known who the one seed was and who the eight seed was. If you came out of a coma, right? If you just woke up, you missed six months this season. You were like, Who's the one seed? Was it Orlando? No, no, it was actually Detroit.”

“I can't even imagine what it's like to be an Orlando Magic fan right now,” Lowe added. “Because there's no way after the Philly playing game. There's no way anyone could have believed in Orlando after those two games, right so now it's like, maybe that's what happened. They had to hit rock bottom. Maybe they had some great team meeting that we don't know about, but they're a completely different team, and I have to buy into it.”

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