The two junior teams at the bottom of the East met head-on, and the sleepwalking performance of The Champion Kaide Cunningham quickly lost the balance of the game, and finally the Pistons lost 103-119 to the Magic, suffering four consecutive defeats.
Statistics
Franz Wagner scored a game-high 24 points, Terrance Rose shot 21 points off the bench, Mo Bamba contributed a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds, Cole Anthony had 12 points, six rebounds and eight assists, Chuma Ogigi also scored 17 points, and Wendell Carter, although only 9 points on 2-of-10 shooting, grabbed 11 rebounds and gave three assists.
For the Pistons, Trey Lyles scored a team-high 18 points off the bench, Sadik Bay scored 17 points, and Mentor Cade Cunningham lost all 11 shots in the first 11 shots, and finally finished with only 8 points and 4 assists on 3-of-17 shooting.
Game review
The two sides started 6-6, after which the speed advantage of the Magic's two young point guards began to manifest, and Wagner, a strong contender for this year's Rookie Award, also scored consecutive points, and after a wave of 13-3, the home team took a double-digit lead. In the second half of the first quarter, both teams sent substitutes, and veterans Terrance Rose, Gary Harris and young forward Auggie also hit three points in succession, and the Magic's advantage was getting bigger and bigger, and after the first quarter, it was already 39-19 leading by as many as 20 points!
But for young teams, the advantage comes and goes quickly. After the start of the second quarter, the Pistons, led by veterans such as Rodney McGrud and Trey Lyles, began to try to chase points, and 5 minutes and 21 seconds before the end of the half, when Kirian Hayes broke through the layup and won, the score on the court had been chased to 45-52, with only a seven-point gap.
The two teams tugged back and forth for a while at a point difference of about 10 points, and then Wendell Carter Jr. fired a split-man dunk that ignited the magic momentum and regained the initiative on the court. 11.6 seconds before halftime, Wagner hit two free throws to stretch the lead to 67-49, but Pistons veteran Corey Joseph stepped back and shot to make the score 51-67, 16 points behind. Wagner scored 17 points at half-time.
After the start of the second half, Joseph hit a back-to-back three-pointer, and after Sadiq Bay also hit a long-range shot 7:26 before the end of the third quarter, the Pistons again forced the point difference to single digits, 66-74. At the critical moment, the Magic's inner advantage was once again reflected, Bamba played 2+1, Saggers made a basket, Wagner also made two foul shots, and the Pistons missed five consecutive shots, the score quickly re-opened, and the Magic finally entered the final quarter with a 17-point advantage.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, magic veteran Rose hit three consecutive three-pointers to widen the on-field point difference to 24 points, and the game lost suspense, and the two sides routinely played the rest of the time.
Both sides started
Pistons: Joseph, Cunningham, Bay, Diallo, Stewart
Magic: Anthony, Sargas, Wagner, Carter, Bamba