The Orlando Magic had a very different performance in Game 6 tonight. Only a few nights ago, they didn’t experience a single moment on top in Game 5. Things were rectified, with the chance of advancing with a win at home. The Magic were up 22 by half, with an entire building rooting for them. All of a sudden, they lost the ability to do anything. For 45 minutes, Orlando did not make a single bucket.

The Detroit Pistons came back from a 24-point deficit to force Game 7. They held the Magic to just 19 points in the second half and only eight points in the fourth quarter. This was the largest comeback by any road team in the NBA playoffs since 1996-97.

“The Magic went 1-27 shooting over the final 16 minutes of tonight’s game, making 1-of-20 shots in the fourth quarter…. An absolutely stunning, inexcusable loss,” NBA insider Brett Siegel mentioned on X.

It’s puzzling to even contemplate how this could happen. Basketball is a tale of two halves. But I’ve never seen a home team crumble away so quickly, having executed a flawless game plan. The Magic did the things they wanted in the first half. They moved the rock around, as every player featuring in the first half put up some points for them.

Desmond Bane and Paolo Banchero combined for 25 first-half points. In response, the Pistons’ highest scorer was Tobias Harris, with 10 points.

The message in the Pistons locker room was “staying in the moment”. JB Bickerstaff asked his team to focus on each possession at a time. “We weren’t going to get it all back at once,” said the Pistons head coach. Carrying that mindset, the Pistons came out searing. They went on a 51-15 run from the start of the third till nearly the end of the game. They held the Orlando Magic to just four made field goals. Banchero and Bane went 2/20 from the field in the second half.

JB Bickerstaff commends the Pistons for playing for each other

Bickerstaff was the happiest man in the room after Game 6. The Pistons head coach could only praise his players’ mindset and selflessness as the reasons behind their 24-point comeback in Game 6. Players made immense sacrifices. Think about an All-Star center in Jalen Duren taking just six shots in a series he has largely struggled in. They are able to put their egos aside for the team’s sake.

“They are so connected and they just don’t want to let each other down,” the Pistons head coach said about the group.

Similar to Game 5, franchise cornerstone Cade Cunningham ran the second half. He followed up his 45-point performance with 24 second-half points that also included four steals and a block. But the box score was just one side of the story. Cunningham executed his plays on the offensive end.

However, the Pistons won because their defense showcased grit. Guys like Paul Reed and Amen Thompson hardly made a scoring dent during the Pistons’ historic stretch. But defensively, they created chaos. The tandem had seven blocked shots in between them. And it wasn’t as if the perimeter was left vulnerable. The Pistons held the Magic to just two made threes in the second half out of 11 attempts.

The team didn’t need an inspiring talk or a hammering from Bickerstaff to look alive in the second half. They share a connection in which everyone wants to perform for each other. That energy was on complete display tonight.

The one seed in the East didn’t want to go down without swinging. But they managed to deliver a demoralizing knockout blow to the Orlando Magic. With that, Detroit has created an opening that didn’t exist after four games in this series. They’ll play a Game 7 at home on the back of showing incredible resilience.

With everything to play for, the Pistons might have just stolen the Magic’s mojo. All they have to do is avoid falling in a situation even remotely close to what happened in Game 6. Because the Pistons just proved no lead is safe against them.