The Detroit Pistons have fallen behind 3-1 to the Orlando Magic in their first round series after another single-digit loss on the road on Monday night
Following a similar pattern from the first three games of the series, the Detroit Pistons found themselves riddled with turnovers against a pesky Orlando Magic defense on Monday night, and the Motown squad couldn’t overcome their turnover battles in what was a 94-88 loss in game four.
After Detroit’s loss in game three, Pistons forward Ausar Thompson spoke about the team’s ball control issues but proclaimed that the squad doesn’t characteristically force so many stolen passes– which is true. But on Monday, Cade Cunningham forced a number of passes that were picked off by Orlando in the first quarter, and it set the tone for a Magic defensive puzzle that the Pistons were unable to crack.
Early on, Orlando deployed rangy forward Franz Wagner onto Cunningham to guard the All-Star floor general, and the Pistons’ point guard found it difficult if not impossible to initiate offense on numerous occasions in the first quarter. That’s where Cunningham’s turnover issues cropped up before he eventually coughed up the ball on a total of eight different occasions. One game prior, Cunningham recorded a staggering nine turnovers in another road loss for the Pistons, so it is clear that the Detroit offense has been weighed down by those costly mistakes from their trusted leader.
“They’re sending a lot of bodies to him and we’ve got to help him by giving him more space so that he has room to operate,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. “Set screens for him, be a little more physical, get the guys off him, but again, we’ve got to do a better job of taking care of it.”
As a team, the Pistons lost the turnover battle by a 20-12 disparity, so the Magic were both more responsible with the basketball while also pushing Detroit into mismatches and double teams after switching onto Cunningham on the tail end of drives, which was a recurring issue in game four.
From a wider lens, Cunningham did generate a wealth of Detroit’s offense with 25 points (7-for-23 FGs), nine rebounds and six assists, but the All-Star starter wasn’t able to do it all single-handedly. Tobias Harris did chip in 20 points, but it was Pistons center Jalen Duren who struggled mightily for the fourth consecutive game in the series.
Through three postseason games, Duren failed to score more than 11 points against the Magic, and the All-Star center had another underwhelming 12-point effort tonight. Orlando continued to pack the paint around JD in the low post with Wendell Carter Jr. in frequent pursuit, and Duren didn’t enjoy nearly the same level of shot variety or diet that he usually produces.
But even as a team, the Pistons were held to just 36 points in the second half, which is far below where Detroit needs to be in order to advance in the postseason against a Magic squad that’s full of steam and confidence after taking a 3-1 lead in the first round series as the eight seed.
All year long, the Pistons relied on generating extra possessions for themselves through hustle, strong attention to the glass and timely turnovers on defense. But against the Magic in game four, Detroit lost the rebounding battle once again and allowed 16 second-chance opportunities to Orlando in the six-point loss.
“It’s tough,” Bickerstaff admitted. “Obviously, I thought we did so many positive things, but you look up, 20 turnovers and give up 16 offensive rebounds, that’s going to be hard to overcome. So, we’ve got to be better in those areas, and we know that’s what this comes down to.”
The Pistons firmly have their backs against the wall after dropping three of their four playoff games so far, so the one side will enter game five back in Detroit on Wednesday, April 29 at 7 pm with a win-or-go-home element of pressure to deal with.
For more information on the latest Detroit Pistons team or player news, follow @EricJRutter on X for continued basketball coverage. Also be sure to look up Roundtable - Michigan Men Media on Facebook for continued social media coverage of all the sporting teams in the Mitten.