The Detroit Pistons find themselves in a troublesome hole, down 2-1 in their first-round series against the Orlando Magic.
Their Game 3 matchup ended with a 113-105 loss, where the Pistons were playing catch-up for the majority of the contest. Orlando led by as many as 17 points, and Detroit struggled to keep pace or maintain its momentum. The Pistons are running out of time for error, as they are now two more losses away from a tragic series upset. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff remains hopeful that his team can bounce back from its postseason struggles.
“It’s one game at a time. That’s what playoff series are. We come down here, if we win on Monday, we take home court advantage back. Today’s game we’ll learn from it, but it’s over with,” Bickerstaff explained during the postgame media session. “It gives us more opportunity to study, it gives us more film to watch. More time to prepare to get for on Monday. But you can’t hang onto it, and our guys have been consistent all year, that we’ve been able to move on from the next. I trust our guys that we’ll focus on it, we’ll learn from it, we’ll study it, we’ll get better at it, and then Monday we’ll be ready to go.”
Detroit lost home-court advantage after fumbling Game 1 at home against Orlando. They are now treading the dangerous territory of possibly becoming the seventh No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 8 seed in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Rick Osentoski-Imagn ImagesAnother tough night for Pistons center Jalen Duren
One of the biggest X-factors for Detroit coming into this series was breakout center Jalen Duren. This has been a tough postseason stretch for the fourth-year center, and those problems continued in Game 3.
Duren finished the night with eight points and nine rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter. He also made an impact defensively by blocking six shots for Detroit. However, he only connected on three of his 10 field goal attempts. Bickerstaff sat his starting center for a majority of the third quarter after a lethargic start to the second half.
Duren has been in a pivotal duel with the Magic’s front-court talent. Center Wendell Carter Jr. made his presence felt after scoring 14 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. Eight of those rebounds came from the offensive glass, providing second-chance opportunities for Orlando.
The Pistons have tried setting Duren up to get going offensively. However, he is yet to have one of the dominant games he was having later in the year. Detroit is 28-6 when Duren scores over 20 points during the regular season. All-Star point guard Cade Cunningham spoke on his mindset and what he expects from himself moving forward.
“He’s confident,” Cunningham stated. “These last three games haven’t been what he wants or what we might want for him. I and the whole team have no doubt he’s going to figure it out, and he knows he’s going to figure it out. We’re excited for next game for him to plant his foot into the series.”
Cunningham led all scorers with 27 points along with nine assists, but added nine critical turnovers. Forward Tobias Harris put up 23 points in 38 minutes for the Pistons. Small forward Ausar Thompson scored 17 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and also had five blocks on defense.
The Detroit Pistons find themselves in a troublesome hole, down 2-1 in their first-round series against the Orlando Magic. Their Game 3 matchup ended with a 113-105 loss, where the Pistons were playing catch-up for the majority of the contest. Orlando led by as many as 17 points, and Detroit struggled to keep pace or maintain its momentum.