EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsORLANDO, Fla. -- A 24-point third-quarter lead by the Orlando Magic had evaporated, and Desmond Bane had just missed two 3-point shots when he had the ball by the Kia Center logo, unsure of what to do.With his teammates not moving on offense, Bane launched another 3 from 29 feet that hit the front rim with 6:14 remaining in Game 6. The home crowd groaned.Orlando led by 24 points early in the third quarter and was 23 minutes from upsetting the top-seeded Detroit Pistons and advancing to the second round. But the Magic suffered an astounding collapse that included missing a playoff-record 23 consecutive shots over a 12-plus minute span to allow the Pistons to keep their season alive with an improbable 93-79 win Friday night.The Magic led 3-1 in this best-of-7 series, but it's the Pistons who have rediscovered the swagger and impenetrable defense that helped them win 60 games and earn the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Detroit has fought to tie the series and can complete this incredible comeback Sunday at home in Game 7 and advance to the second round."Until it's over for us, it ain't over," Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. "And they just continue to impress me. We just have that mentality that you are going to have to choke the life out of us."And if not, we're going to keep swinging. And as they say, one of them is going to hit the temple, and we'll get an opportunity to win games."Despite not having Franz Wagner (right calf strain) for the second consecutive game, the Magic had the Pistons on the ropes. Orlando led by 24 points with 11:11 remaining in the third. But the Magic never delivered the knockout punch.Instead, they went ice-cold. They shot 4 for 37 in the second half, setting the worst field goal percentage in any regular-season or playoff half with at least 35 attempts in the play-by-play era (since 1997-98) according to ESPN Research. They shot an abysmal 1-for-20 in the fourth quarter.Paolo Banchero, Bane and Jalen Suggs combined to go 2-for-26, including 0-for-13 from 3, in the second half. At one point, the Pistons held the Magic without a made basket for 45 minutes in real time.Stunning doesn't come close to describing the Magic's epic offensive meltdown."They were just playing more desperate than us, playing harder than us," said Bane, who was acquired for four first-round picks and a pick swap to stop this kind of shooting drought. "Whether it was offensive rebounds, heating up their pressure to get steals, really kind of took us out of our stuff, messed with our flow."Cade Cunningham put the Pistons in position to win this series. He had 32 points, 10 rebounds and four steals. The Detroit star outscored the Magic in the second half 24-19. He scored 19 points in the fourth quarter, when Detroit just kept gaining more and more confidence with each Orlando miss."Detroit grit," Cunningham said in a postgame interview on the court. "That's what we've been talking about all year."In this series, the Pistons have had two massive runs that basically saved their season. They had a 30-3 third-quarter run that fueled their Game 2 win in Detroit. And after falling behind by 24 early in the third, the Pistons went on a 42-10 spurt that gave them an 80-72 lead with 5:14 remaining."It's our defense," Cunningham said. "When we're guarding the way that we're supposed to be, it's really hard for them to score on us. And there's just been too many stretches throughout this series where we haven't guarded the way we supposed to. So, we've allowed them to have life. We've allowed them to move and get their shots and all that stuff."But whenever we really lock in on our defense, it's tough for them to score on us, and we know that."Orlando went from being one half away from becoming just the seventh No. 8 seed to upset a top seed in the first round since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1983-84 to potentially blowing a 3-1 lead.How will the Magic recover from the collapse with the likelihood that Wagner misses Game 7? Wagner did not participate in the morning shootaround before Game 6 and was in a walking boot on the bench."Just keep everybody together," said Banchero, who finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. "The series [isn't] over. They clawed their way to tie it up 3-3. We won a game there to start the series. We've just got to do it again."
