{"id":119591,"date":"2026-05-02T04:57:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/paolo-banchero-got-caught-on-our-heels-as-magic-lose-24-point-lead-to-pistons-talkbasket-net\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T04:57:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:57:42","slug":"paolo-banchero-got-caught-on-our-heels-as-magic-lose-24-point-lead-to-pistons-talkbasket-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/paolo-banchero-got-caught-on-our-heels-as-magic-lose-24-point-lead-to-pistons-talkbasket-net\/","title":{"rendered":"Paolo Banchero: \u201cGot caught on our heels\u201d as Magic lose 24-point lead to Pistons &#8211; TalkBasket.net"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"wpb_video_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wpconsent-iframe-placeholder wpconsent-iframe-placeholder-youtube\" data-wpconsent-name=\"youtube\" data-wpconsent-category=\"marketing\">\n<div class=\"wpconsent-iframe-thumbnail\"> <picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.talkbasket.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/wpconsent\/thumbnails\/youtube-065f166c2bd5ce548cc9e0e6b3e66734.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<p> <button class=\"wpconsent-iframe-accept-button\" data-category=\"marketing\" type=\"button\">Click here to accept Marketing cookies and load this content<\/button><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"POSTGAME SOUND: DETROIT PISTONS VS. ORLANDO MAGIC|  COACH MOSE, DESMOND BANE &amp; PAOLO BANCHERO\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5q5VZwn9Nl4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Paolo Banchero reflected after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.talkbasket.net\/217517-pistons-dethrone-magic-93-79-to-force-game-7\" type=\"post\" id=\"217517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Orlando Magic\u2019s 93-79 Game 6 loss to the Detroit Pistons<\/a> on Friday, May 1, at Kia Center, where a 24-point lead vanished as Detroit forced a decisive Game 7 in the Eastern Conference first round.<\/p>\n<p>Banchero said: \u201cI think they just turned up their defensive pressure and we just got caught on our heels. Game pressure builds and they went on a pretty big run there and we didn\u2019t score.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Orlando endured a major offensive collapse, including a stretch of 24 consecutive misses as Detroit flipped control of the game. When asked about repeated scoring droughts this season, Banchero responded: \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not really thinking about it. At this point, it\u2019s just all about game seven.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He avoided overanalyzing the offensive struggles, emphasizing the immediate focus on the series decider rather than the late-game breakdown.<\/p>\n<p>On leadership heading into Game 7, Banchero said: \u201cYeah, just keep everybody together. Series ain\u2019t over. They\u2019ve clawed their way to tie it up 3-3. We won a game there to start the series and we just got to go do it again. Can\u2019t hang our heads. Got to go to sleep and wake up and get on the plane with a clear mind and do whatever we got to do to get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also addressed the importance of resetting mentally after the defeat. \u201cI just said we won the first game there. You can\u2019t hang your head about this. Obviously it\u2019s a bad loss. Got to chalk it up, but there\u2019s nothing we can go and do about it at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On stopping momentum swings during Detroit\u2019s run, he said: \u201cI think you just got to find a way to get a basket. Whether it\u2019s me, whether it\u2019s Dez, whoever, trying to figure out a way for us to get a good shot. It\u2019s on the five guys on the court to stop the bleeding and just find a way to get a basket, which we weren\u2019t able to do tonight. But like I said, game seven, we can go in there and win. That\u2019s got to be the mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on Orlando\u2019s second-half offense, Banchero said: \u201cYeah, it\u2019s the playoffs and this series has been a slugfest. I wish I had some complex answer as to what action or ball movement, but sometimes the game just goes that way. Unfortunately, we had a very bad drought tonight and you just got to wipe it off and get ready for game seven.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to the team\u2019s defensive base despite the collapse. \u201cI think our toughness, our defense. We only held them to 93 points tonight, which is another great defensive game. We just came up short offensively. I think our defense and togetherness and toughness is what we\u2019re going to have to lean on in game seven. I think shots are going to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Detroit\u2019s primary engine Cade Cunningham, Banchero added: \u201cYeah, he\u2019s their engine. He does a lot of their scoring and facilitating. We got to make it hard on him. Try to make others beat us. Just do whatever we can to win the game. It\u2019s one game. All that matters is this one game. We just got to do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Looking back on previous elimination scenarios, he said: \u201cI remember going up big early and losing the lead in the second half. Learning from that is you got to play the full game. You got to stay locked in for 48 minutes. You can\u2019t get comfortable at any point, especially on the road. It\u2019s going to be a hell of a challenge for this team.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.talkbasket.net\/217529-paolo-banchero-got-caught-on-our-heels-as-magic-lose-24-point-lead-to-pistons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Click here to accept Marketing cookies and load this content Paolo Banchero reflected after the Orlando Magic\u2019s 93-79 Game 6 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Friday, May 1, at Kia Center, where a 24-point lead vanished as Detroit forced a decisive Game 7 in the Eastern Conference first round. Banchero said: \u201cI think they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}