The Detroit Pistons came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Orlando Magic in the first round, winning three consecutive elimination games to advance. Now they have done it again, winning Game 6 in Cleveland 115-94 to force a decisive Game 7 back at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday, May 17, at 8 p.m. ET. The Detroit Pistons have refused to be written off at every turn. But on Saturday, ABC wrote them off in a different way entirely, and a local radio journalist made sure nobody missed it.

Marc Ryan of 97.1 The Ticket caught an ABC promotional advertisement running on the national network that read: “Cavs vs. Knicks, Eastern Conference Finals, Game 1, Sunday.” The series hasn’t been decided yet. The winner of the Pistons-Cavaliers series is set to face the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, but ABC’s graphics team had already filled in the blank, with Cleveland’s name and Detroit was nowhere to be seen.

Ryan’s response was immediate. “Unbelievable,” he posted on X on May 16. “ABC runs a ‘Cavs vs. Knicks’ Eastern Conference Finals ad. It claims Game 1 is [on] Sunday. That’s adorable. Make sure the Pistons see this.” He followed it with a clarification that removed any ambiguity about where the error originated: “Note: this is not our local affiliate’s fault. They receive these from the national network itself.”

The advertisement was not a rogue local edit or a scheduling placeholder that slipped through on a regional feed. It was produced at the national level and distributed to affiliates, meaning someone at ABC built a graphic assuming Cleveland would advance past Detroit before the series was over.

The Pistons have entered the postseason as the East’s top seed, going 60-22 in the regular season and earning home-court advantage throughout the Eastern bracket. Cade Cunningham has averaged 36.3 points, 6.7 assists, and 5.0 rebounds in Games 5 through 7 of the first round alone, a performance that assumed Cleveland’s advancement looked not just premature, but uninformed.

The officiating context made the error land even harder. Cleveland won Game 5 in overtime, and in Game 6, the Pistons players and fans were vocally frustrated with the foul calls throughout. A nationally distributed ad effectively penciling in the Cavaliers before Game 7 tips off was the worst possible timing for a network already navigating scrutiny about how this series has been called.

Fans erupted with criticism on ABC

The response on X was swift and unified in its direction, if not always in its tone. “The game has already been decided, the NBA is fixed,” one fan wrote, connecting the advertisement directly to a larger pattern of perceived institutional bias. It was the bluntest version of a sentiment that ran through every reply: that a nationally produced graphic assuming Cleveland’s advancement was not a clerical error but a confirmation of something fans had suspected throughout the series.

“Nah, that’s actually insane. Somebody has to get fired,” posted another. The response cuts at the competence argument, that regardless of intent, a production team at a national broadcast network running an ECF ad before a Game 7 has been played represents a failure of basic editorial oversight that carries real professional consequences. “If that doesn’t tell you this game is fixed with these refs, don’t know what would,” a third fan wrote, tying the advertisement to the officiating narrative that has shadowed this series. The implication was explicit: the graphic and the whistle are part of the same system, and both are pointed in Cleveland’s direction.

A fourth fan went further, demanding organizational accountability. “The blatant disrespect, the league needs to shut this down and issue an apology to Detroit for this, and the narrative of a fix is on by the refs and the league, because that’s who they want to see. Show some respect to Detroit.” The call for an apology reflects something specific: this is not the first time the Pistons fan base has felt the city being sidelined by national media. Detroit’s first-round comeback from 3-1 down received a fraction of the coverage it would have generated had it happened in Los Angeles, Boston, or New York, a disparity that Pistons supporters have tracked closely throughout the playoffs.

That last fan made the broadest argument of all: “National media can’t stand Detroit, always trying to keep us down. I’m 100% convinced of that. Just one more reason why I’m so desperate to see all of our teams do well. Say nothing about it, just go win. Force them to acknowledge that Detroit is on top.” It is the response of a fan base that has learned to treat disrespect as fuel. Game 7 tips off Sunday night at Little Caesars Arena. ABC already knows who they think is going to the Conference Finals. Detroit intends to make them run a correction.