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MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – DECEMBER 03: Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff of the Detroit Pistons reacts during the first quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum on December 03, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Patrick McDermott\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Detroit Pistons<\/a> dropped Game 4 of their regular-season series against the Orlando Magic 107-123 on April 6 night at the Kia Center, falling to 2-2 in the season series. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff did not sugarcoat what went wrong<\/a>, pointing directly to mental lapses and defensive breakdowns as the driving force behind the defeat.<\/p>\n Bickerstaff was blunt in his post-game presser, placing blame on Detroit\u2019s inability to execute their system for three straight quarters.<\/p>\n \u201cToo many mental lapses, breakdowns, things that we typically don\u2019t do \u2014 we were allowing to happen on both ends of the floor,\u201d he said. He then zeroed in on late-game execution as an equally critical failure: \u201cWe had some lapses down the stretch, some turnovers, things like that that ended up helping them extend their lead.\u201d<\/p>\n How Detroit Fell Apart in the First Three Quarters GettyJ.B. Bickerstaff speaks on loss to Magic.<\/p>\n The Pistons\u2019 problems began immediately. Detroit fell into a 0-14 hole in the first quarter\u2019s opening minutes, as Paolo Banchero exploited soft defense while Daniss Jenkins and Marcus Sasser gave the ball away on bad passes.<\/p>\n By halftime, Detroit trailed 55-69, having been outscored 39-27 in the second quarter alone. The third quarter was more of the same, Orlando extended their lead to 76-98, with Jalen Suggs and Desmond Bane repeatedly finding cracks in Detroit\u2019s defense. The Pistons finished with 19 total turnovers, gifting Orlando easy buckets throughout all three quarters.<\/p>\n The Pistons did flash their true self in the fourth quarter, outscoring Orlando 31-25 in a stretch that included a massive 36-14 run. But Bickerstaff couldn\u2019t hide the frustration:<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s again who we are when we\u2019re at our best \u2014 we\u2019re defending at a high level. And for whatever reason through the first three quarters we struggled with that.\u201d He added, \u201cIt would have been better obviously to close it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Detroit Player Performance Breakdown Reveals Costly Individual Struggles<\/p>\n Paolo Banchero was phenomenal with 31 points, 10-of-16 shooting, and a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line, finishing with a +23. Jalen Suggs, with 12 assists, was also +30.<\/p>\n Paolo Banchero was phenomenal with 31 points, 10-of-16 shooting, and a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line, finishing with a +23. Jalen Suggs, with 12 assists, was also +30.<\/p>\n Jalen Duren led Detroit with 18 points and 9 rebounds, but made 4 turnovers, -18. Daniss Jenkins added 18 points and 7 assists while he had a terrible five turnovers, also ending -18. Javonte Green was the only one who gave positive energy from the bench with 17 pts at +5.<\/p>\n Bickerstaff Addresses Cade Cunningham\u2019s Collapsed Lung Injury<\/p>\n With the playoffs looming, the absence of Cade Cunningham shadowed the entire game. Bickerstaff made his feelings clear before tip-off,<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way to replicate what a game is other than playing the game\u2026 especially ramping up to the intensity of playoff basketball, it would be beneficial for the guys, and the group,\u201d per Omari Sankofa<\/a> of the Detroit Free Press.<\/p>\n Cunningham, who was averaging 24.5 points and 9.9 assists before suffering a collapsed lung on March 17, was upgraded on the injury report ahead of the Magic game, a cautiously optimistic sign as Detroit, locked in as the Eastern Conference\u2019s No. 1 seed, eyes a deep postseason run without its star point guard at full strength.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJayesh Pagar<\/a> Jayesh Pagar is a writer at Heavy Sports, covering the New York Knicks and other NBA teams. He brings four years of experience across digital sports media, including NBA, WNBA, college basketball, and college football. He covered as the Knicks beat writer for ONSI and has written for PFSN, Sporting News, and ClutchPoints. More about Jayesh Pagar<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Pistons\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – DECEMBER 03: Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff of the Detroit Pistons reacts during the first quarter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,3860,6,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-702911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-detroitpistons","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116362462420368242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"J.B.](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269858827.jpg\")
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