For a moment – a moment! – the Detroit Pistons’ Game 7 party stopped in the third quarter, when the visitors made a little run to put a cap on what was looking like the beginning of a coronation.
A 7-0 Orlando burst cut the Pistons’ 20-point lead to 13 and well, remember Game 6?
Of course, you do, the Pistons made history, and had they not followed their historic comeback by consolidating it here at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday, May 3, in their winner-take-all opportunity, that monumental escape in Florida would’ve been a footnote – a sad little reminder about a brief reprieve on the way to a miserable and inexcusable defeat.
But then that’s not who these Pistons have been, and not who they are, and when the Magic made what turned out to be their final, tiny pushback, the face of the franchise checked back into the game.
Cade Cunningham hit a midrange pull-up jumper and then a 3-pointer – his fourth on Sunday – and the Pistons quickly regained the lead, along with their balance, and the party blew up from there.
History made. History averted. The Pistons move on to the second round.
Their 116-94 win over the Magic gave them their first series victory since 2008, making them one of 15 teams in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit. It helped that Orlando lost forward Franz Wagner in injury in Game 4.
It also helped the Pistons found themselves a little more each game. For much of the series, they played stiff and tight, and struggling to find their top shelf level force.
Expectations are heavy like that. It didn’t help that Jalen Duren, the team’s second-leading scorer during the regular season, kept playing himself off the floor. He looked lost in Games 3 and 4, and as the chatter around his surprisingly poor play got louder, he flailed even deeper.
He came up for air in Game 6 and when Game 7 started, the Duren who made the All-Star Game just three months ago made an appearance. The 22-year-old scored 11 points and hauled in 15 rebounds, but it was his demeanor that looked different.
Like himself.
The Pistons needed it. And they’ll need him to springboard from here if they want to keep making noise.
Cunningham, as he had been all series, was the best player on the floor, dropping in a cool 32 on good efficiency while making his living at the free throw line and behind the 3-point line. He had 12 assists, too, giving him the kind of stat line that placed his name nightly among the NBA’s MVP candidates before his collapsed lung.
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He got tired late, early in the series , but coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s decision to rest Cunningham just six minutes into the first quarter in each of the final three games made a difference in his wind.
And his legs.
He, too, looked like himself.
He needed to, especially early, when Paolo Banchero came out draining 3s and scored Orlando’s first 11 points. The Magic star finished with 38, and kept his team in it for a while.
At least until the old fella got it going late in the second quarter. Tobias Harris, played the best series of his career, saving his best game for the biggest game. Not only did his 11-point run give Detroit a little room going into the half, his 30 points – only his second time with at least 30 in the postseason – gave the Pistons a tidy bookend to Cunningham.
Game 7s are, so often, heavy affairs, beset with off-the-mark shooting and white-hot pressure. If Harris felt any of it, he didn’t show it. His teammates call him “Unc” for a reason, and his presence and vibe were critical for these mostly young Pistons to survive.
But then playoff series are rarely won with only the players expected to make a difference. Someone else has to chip in at some point, even if that someone was a two-way player earlier in the season.
Daniss Jenkins didn’t look ready when the series started, as the stage and the wattage sped him up. Slowly, game by game, he settled in and slowed his racing mind. He made shots in the improbable comeback in Game 6, then had his best game of the series in Game 7.
His buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the third quarter is the highlight, but his shotmaking gave the Pistons a third scorer on a day when Duncan Robinson didn’t have the range.
Again, this is who Jenkins was over the last six weeks of the season, and this is who he was earlier in the season when earning a full-time contract from the Pistons.
And now he has playoff bona fides.
All the Pistons do, as they learned what they’re capable of doing when they lean into what they’ve been since November. This team is never going to – or rarely going to, at least – shoot anyone off the floor.
But they can run teams off the floor by giving them no place to run, and little space to shoot. And now that the pressure is mostly off, there’s no telling where this might lead.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: It took 7 games, but this is who the Detroit Pistons are
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
