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Pistons open playoffs with a flop as East’s top seed, losing to 8th-seeded Magic
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Pistons opened the NBA playoffs with a flop.
Detroit went into the postseason as the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference, openly talking about exceeding modest expectations and winning the franchise’s fourth championship.
If the Pistons don’t play better than they did in a 112-101 loss to Orlando on Sunday night in Game 1, they might get knocked out in the first round again.
“We’re sick about losing this one,” Cade Cunningham said after scoring a playoff career-high 39 points and not getting much help from his teammates. “It’s a long series.”
Detroit, which has lost an NBA-record 11 straight home postseason games, hosts the Magic again on Wednesday night.
The Pistons have not won a home playoff game since 2008, which is also the last year they advanced in the playoffs.
They were sluggish early against the Magic and had a built-in excuse, playing for the first time in a week.
“We didn’t come out with the right energy,” Cunningham said.
They were flat early in the third quarter, too, and that’s tougher to explain.
“We were chasing them all night,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We made some runs to get ourselves back in the ballgame.”
The Magic, meanwhile, looked ready to play just two nights after routing Charlotte in an elimination game to earn a spot in the playoffs.
“They’ve been off and we’ve found a little bit of a rhythm,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “That always plays a part in it.”
Detroit never had the lead.
Cunningham made a 3-pointer to pull the Pistons into a tie midway through the third quarter, but they wasted the opportunity by giving up 14 of the next 17 points and couldn’t recover.
Detroit finished with a season-low 31 baskets, connecting on just 40% of its shots. Tobias Harris scored 17 points as the only double-digit scorer other than Cunningham, but he missed 10 of 15 shots.
All-Star Jalen Duren, who averaged nearly 20 points in the regular season, was limited to four shots and eight points.
“They packed the paint,” Bickerstaff said. “They’re going to put a bunch of bodies in the paint to try to make it difficult on him.”
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