{"id":193495,"date":"2026-05-01T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=193495"},"modified":"2026-05-01T02:41:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:41:34","slug":"pistons-still-have-uphill-playoffs-battle-after-clutch-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/05\/01\/pistons-still-have-uphill-playoffs-battle-after-clutch-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons Still Have An Uphill Playoffs Battle After Clutch Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Pistons took Game 5 against the Orlando Magic to keep their playoff hopes alive, but the war isn’t over yet. They are still down three games to two<\/a>. The Pistons are on their way back to the Theme Park Capital of the World for another win-or-go-home matchup. If the Pistons want to see the second round, they have to take the next two games or spend the summer watching the world dissect everything that went wrong in what should have been their year.<\/p>\n

Pistons Still Have an Uphill Playoffs Battle After Clutch Win<\/h2>\n

So far, the playoffs have been a rough ride for the Pistons and their fans. Being the number one seed in either conference isn’t a guarantee of success in the postseason. That being said, it’s not unfair to expect a number one seed to at least get through the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

That basic expectation for the Pistons has been in jeopardy since their series against Orlando started. The Magic won games 1, 3, and 4, leaving Detroit to continually play catch-up. This situation has put the eighth seed firmly in charge of the series, leaving the Eastern Conference’s number one team on the back foot the entire time. The Pistons showed no real fire until Game 5, which was a wire-to-wire win for Detroit. They desperately needed a dominant performance like that. Now, they need two more.<\/p>\n

While Cade Cunningham<\/a> came out swinging with a 45-point game, some of the credit has to go to Tobias Harris<\/a>. After the Pistons’ Game 4 debacle, Harris called out his team’s lack of hustle<\/a> and intensity. That certainly changed in Game 5. Detroit still had turnover problems, but they were a lot closer to the lockdown defense that got them to the postseason in the first place.<\/p>\n

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Detroit Has A Major Advantage On Their Side<\/h3>\n

Game 5 was great, but the road to the next round of the playoffs is getting bumpier and bumpier. Detroit is heading to Orlando for Game 6 against a franchise that wants to close this series out now and move on from the Pistons. They have already lost two games in this series to the Magic in their barn. That being said, the Pistons did manage to win one game in Orlando during the regular season, so there is hope that they can get the job done once again.<\/p>\n

Detroit does have two advantages going into Game 6. First and foremost, they are the better team, even though they haven’t been playing like it. There’s a reason the Pistons were number one in the East in the regular season, while the Magic just barely squeaked into the playoffs through the Play-In Tournament.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, the Pistons are wounded, desperate, and fighting for survival. That makes them dangerous. When Cunningham was out injured with a collapsed lung, Detroit kept fighting and won nine out of 12 games in his absence. It’s hard to imagine this series not going to seven games, given the tenacity of the Pistons. Their mistake was waiting until their collective backs were against the wall to show the fight in them. Maybe that’s what it took to finally wake the Pistons up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

History Is Also In The Pistons’ Favor<\/h3>\n

Teams down three games to one don’t exactly have a great record in the NBA. In the history of the league, comebacks from this far down in the count to win a playoff series have only happened 13 times. The Denver Nuggets actually pulled it off twice in the 2020 NBA Playoffs, which is a crazy feat.<\/p>\n

The reason this is a good thing is because of the 2003 NBA Playoffs. Detroit was in the mix that season and came back to win a series from a three-to-one deficit in the first round. Their opponent, oddly enough, was the Magic. Naturally, the rosters were completely different, so it’s not a direct comparison. At the same time, that means the Pistons know this kind of victory is possible. It’s happened 13 times before, and there’s no reason this series can’t be number 14.<\/p>\n

Realistically, the Pistons pulling this off is highly improbable at best. Only 4.4% percent of teams that end up in this position manage to fight their way out of it. That doesn’t matter, though. History is telling Detroit fans that there’s still a chance, even if it’s a marginal one.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Pistons took Game 5 against the Orlando Magic to keep their playoff hopes alive, but the war isn’t over yet. They are still down three games to two. The Pistons are on their way back to the Theme Park Capital of the World for another win-or-go-home matchup. If the Pistons want to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5789,"featured_media":193590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,10,62],"tags":[3965,596,343],"class_list":["post-193495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-pistons","category-nba","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-tobias-harris"],"modified_by":"Benjamin Yu, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5789"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193495"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193591,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193495\/revisions\/193591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}