The Orlando Magic had a chance to win their first playoff series in 16 years. Then, disaster struck.
ORLANDO — The Orlando Magic had a chance to win their first playoff series in 16 years on Friday. Instead, they suffered an epic collapse in a 93-79 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
The loss brings the series to a sudden-death Game 7 after the Magic took a 3-1 lead in the series just days before on April 27. How did it happen?
A Strong Start
In the first half of Game 6, the Magic took charge.
After the first quarter saw both teams trading blows and trying to find opportunities in each other’s missed shots and mistakes, Orlando not only found its rhythm, but caught fire.
From the 10:53 mark in the second quarter to the 6:11 mark, the Magic produced a 20-4 run to gain a 47-30 lead. They would keep their foot on the gas and administer a separate 8-0 run with less than three minutes in the quarter to close the half. In the second quarter, Orlando outscored Detroit, 35-12.
By the time both teams headed for the locker rooms, the Magic led, 60-38 behind 15 points from Desmond Bane (10 of which he scored in the second quarter) and 10 points from Paolo Banchero pushed Detroit into a tie for its largest halftime deficit of the season.
Disaster Strikes
After half time, the Magic's history-making collapse began, and they watched their 24-point lead slip away.
The Magic went ice cold from the field and ended up missing 23-straight shots. Between the 04:14 mark in the third quarter and the 02:24 mark in the fourth, they did not hit a shot, marking 45 minutes of real time in which they did not hit a shot. Their 23-straight missed shots were also the most by a playoff team this century, per ESPN Insights.
From the opening of the third quarter to the final buzzer, Orlando scored 19 points, making it the first team in the shot-clock era (1954-55) to have a 20-plus point halftime lead then fail to score 20 points in the second half, per Optastats.
The Pistons used the Magic’s historic shooting slump to their advantage and scored 55 points in the second half, with Cade Cunningham leading the way by scoring 24 of his 32 points. While Orlando was setting the wrong kind of records, the Pistons made the right kind of history by becoming the first team in playoff history to overcome a 20-plus point halftime deficit to avoid elimination.
Overall, Orlando’s core group of players shrunk in a critical contest, as Paolo Banchero went 4-20 from the field for 17 points, Jalen Suggs went 1-10 for seven points and Wendell Carter Jr. did not secure a rebound. By the final buzzer, the Magic had gone 4-37 in the final two periods.
Now, it is up to them to try and find a way to win Game 7 in Detroit, which is scheduled for Sunday at 3:30 p.m.