{"id":715811,"date":"2026-04-22T11:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715811\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:30:21","slug":"theyre-more-talented-paul-pierce-believes-the-magic-are-capable-of-stunning-the-top-seeded-pistons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715811\/","title":{"rendered":"“They’re more talented” – Paul Pierce believes the Magic are capable of stunning the top-seeded Pistons"},"content":{"rendered":"

A development that went largely under the radar this early in the NBA Playoffs was the\u00a0Orlando Magic’s<\/a>\u00a0stunning 112-101 victory over the Eastern Conference’s top-seed, the Detroit Pistons<\/a>. Left for dead after they had to play in the Play-In Tournament just to earn the final playoff ticket and battle the surprising Pistons, the Magic shocked the basketball world with their gritty and splendid Game 1 performance.<\/p>\n

In fact, the showing was enough to convince Hall of Famer\u00a0Paul Pierce<\/a>\u00a0that Orlando is capable of ousting the Pistons from the playoffs, saying the Magic just has more talent.<\/p>\n

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High hopes<\/p>\n

Pierce relayed that his belief in the Magic goes back to before the 2025-26 season tipped off. After seeing the Magic acquire knockdown shooter Desmond Bane<\/a> in the offseason to help them space the floor, Pierce believed they were capable of snatching a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

However, that didn’t happen as severe injuries to two of their starters, do-it-all forward Franz Wagner<\/a> and defensive demon Jalen Suggs<\/a>, kept the Magic from realizing their potential.<\/p>\n

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“Before the season, when we was sitting here preseason, I was like Orlando’s going to be a top four seed team in the East,”\u00a0Pierce\u00a0began<\/a>.\u00a0“Based on what I saw last year, they pushed the Boston Celtics. And I mean Boston handled them pretty, pretty good, but damn\u2014they had like Paolo Banchero looked unstoppable in that series, averaging like 30.”<\/p>\n

Although the Celtics<\/a> ousted the Magic in five games in their first-round clash, Pierce was right to describe Banchero<\/a>‘s play as impressive. The former Duke Blue Devil showcased the depth of his skills in that series, averaging 29.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.<\/p>\n

“And then I was like, man, they added Bane. So I was like, Orlando is going to be a threat in the East if they play to their potential and Banchero lives up to who I thought he was,”\u00a0Pierce continued.<\/p>\n

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Related: “It will be the first issue of Playboy I will never see” – Jerry Buss had a hilarious reaction to his daughter Jeanie Buss’ Playboy shoot<\/a><\/p>\n

An up-and-down season<\/p>\n

As mentioned, the Magic didn’t get any traction in the regular season after Franz and Jalen played in only 34 and 57 games, respectively. Banchero also courted controversy by publicly\u00a0bashing the team’s late-game shortcomings<\/a>. His numbers also took a dip this season, as he averaged 22.2 points per game, a few points down from the 25.9 points he scored per game last season.<\/p>\n

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However, the last few weeks have seen the former first pick step up, scoring 25 in their Play-In win over the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> and tallying 23 points, nine rebounds and four assists in Game 1 against the Pistons.<\/p>\n

“So far in the last two weeks, Banchero been playing like the player I thought he would play like all year long,”\u00a0Pierce said.<\/p>\n

With the team’s starting five scoring in double-figures in the series-opener, Pierce believes the Magic are finally on track for the first time all season long, leading him to believe they are capable of pulling off a monumental upset.<\/p>\n

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“This version of Orlando, I’m on the bandwagon because I just feel like they’re more talented,”\u00a0the Truth declared.<\/p>\n

“I think they’re going to win this series.”<\/p>\n

It was only one game in the series, but given the confidence the Magic played with and how disorganized the Pistons were, Pierce’s prediction definitely has some legs to it.<\/p>\n

Related: Derrick Rose reveals how Coach Thibodeau kept him in the NBA despite the injuries: “He added years to my career”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Apr 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A development that went largely under the radar this early in the NBA Playoffs was the\u00a0Orlando Magic’s\u00a0stunning 112-101…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[1509,7,46,684,473,3878,497,188,1409,403,685,461,6,76,2078],"class_list":{"0":"post-715811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-banchero","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-celtics","11":"tag-charlotte","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-charlottehornets","14":"tag-desmond-bane","15":"tag-detroit-pistons","16":"tag-eastern-conference","17":"tag-franz-wagner","18":"tag-hornets","19":"tag-jalen-suggs","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-orlando-magic","22":"tag-paul-pierce"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116448134657358073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715811","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=715811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}