The Orlando Magic can breathe a sigh of relief now.
The Detroit Pistons pulled together a big fourth-quarter rally, erasing a 17-point deficit with 3:14 remaining in Game 3 to take a one-point lead, silencing Magic fans inside the Kia Center. But the Magic didn’t shy away from a moment where they relinquished a lead to the top-seeded Pistons.
With the Magic trailing by a point, Franz Wagner scored five straight points to give the Magic a 109-105 lead with 1:46 remaining. And with a little breathing room, Paolo Banchero got a friendly bounce on a dagger, top-of-the-key 3-pointer that sealed a thrilling 113-105 win to give the Magic a 2-1 series lead.
Cunningham led the Pistons with 27 points while Banchero and Desmond Bane tallied 25 points apiece for eighth-seeded Orlando.
The Magic got off to a hot start, scoring baskets in the paint early and role players finding a rhythm, but the Pistons did enough to stay in reach as the two teams exchanged seven leads in the first quarter. Jalen Suggs, who scored 12 first-half points on 4-of-7 shooting, provided Orlando with an offensive spark alongside Bane’s hot shooting from beyond the 3-point line.
The Magic began the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run and went ahead by 15 points in a game that appeared to be over. That was until Detroit’s Tobias Harris helped the Pistons chip away at Orlando’s lead and hold enough confidence to remain in the game.
Game 4 is Monday at 8 p.m. ET.
Desmond Bane comes up big
The Orlando Magic paid a massive price to bring aboard Desmond Bane in a trade.
On Saturday, when the team needed him desperately, he delivered.
Bane scored 25 points, making his first six 3-point attempts, to give the Magic an outside shooting boost. By making those early 3s, he likely exerted a steadying influence on his young teammates in a critical game.
Orlando held an 87-79 lead going into the fourth quarter, but it felt like a precarious lead. That’s where Bane came to the fore again. On the Magic’s first possession of the quarter, he sank a stepback 3 from the left break, extending the lead to 90-79. Two Magic possessions later, Bane drove to the hoop for a layup, and the Magic’s lead was up to 92-79.
During the 2025 offseason, Orlando acquired Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies by trading Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, the 16th pick in the 2025 draft, a first-round pick in 2026, a first-round pick in 2028, swap rights to a first-round draft pick in 2029 (top two protected) and a first-round pick in 2030 to the Grizzlies.
Bane had 17 points in Orlando’s Game 1 victory, but he went 7-of-20 from the field. He struggled in the Game 2 loss, compiling only 12 points on 2-of-11 shooting.
On Saturday, however, he was much more efficient. He finished with 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting, including 7-of-9 shooting from 3. The Magic playoff record for made 3s in a game had been seven, set by Dennis Scott on May 25, 1995, against the Indiana Pacers. Now Bane and Scott hold the record in tandem.
Bane was a salve for a Magic team that, despite returning to Orlando with the series tied 1-1, had struggled to hit its open and wide-open 3s early in the series and much of the season. — Josh Robbins
Pistons fall short late
The Pistons came storming back from a 17-point deficit to take a 105-104 lead, but it wasn’t enough as Orlando eventually walked Detroit down to take a 2-1 series lead.
It seemed the Pistons were on the brink of another game-defining run, but they just couldn’t consistently hit shots or get the stops they needed. Duren eventually fouled out with just eight points, nine boards on 3-of-10 shooting.
Cunningham and Harris were orchestrating the run. They took turns hitting clutch buckets, with Cunningham scoring 12 of his 27 in the final frame and Harris adding 10 of his 23.
It’s less than ideal it took the run they went on to get back into the game. Monday is as close to a must-win as you can get if the Pistons hope to head back to Detroit with the series tied. — Hunter Patterson
Franz Wagner finds it from distance
Entering this season, Franz Wagner’s long-range shooting motion was said to be broken.
On Saturday, when his team needed it most, it was just fine.
With Orlando clinging to a 106-105 lead — in the midst of a 26-10 Detroit run that had turned the game on its ear — Wagner sank a 3 from the left wing with 1:46 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The trey was probably the most significant basket of Wagner’s NBA career.
It propelled Orlando to the Game 3 win, and it staved off one of the great fourth-quarter playoff collapses in recent memory after an emphatic Detroit comeback.
During the 2023-24 season, Wagner’s 3-point percentage dipped to 28.1 percent. In 2024-25 season, as a strange hitch became more apparent in his shooting stroke, he made only 29.5 percent of his attempts.
This year, he brought his percentage back up to 34.5 percent.
He was 1 for 5 from beyond the arc in the series — until he hit his crucial 3 late in the fourth quarter.
The trey might have saved the game, and the series, for Orlando, and it could be the kind of confidence-boosting play that could propel Wagner to new individual heights. — Robbins