The Detroit Pistons won 60 games in the regular season to lock up the Eastern Conference’s one seed, but if it can’t win three straight games, it will all have been for naught. The Pistons lost their second-straight game to the Orlando Magic.
Now, down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, Detroit is reckoning with the creeping reality of being upset by the eight seed in the first round, but won’t be laying down and conceding anything.
“We’re going to come out punching,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after losing Game 4 on Monday, via ESPN. “That I promise you. We’re not going to lay down for anybody. It’s one game at home and that’s what your focus is on, is you got to go home and win one game. And that’s where our mindset is.”
Pistons star Cade Cunningham, who has struggled with turnovers throughout the series, was asked if he is shocked at how things have played out.
“I mean, going into [this series I’d be] shocked,” he said. “But with the way that we’ve been playing, that stuff’s not good enough to win games, and this league’s too good.
“They’re a good team, so they’re outrebounding, turning me over. We haven’t hit enough shots. Our defense hasn’t caught its footing, so it’s not shocking that we’re losing the games playing like that.”
Veteran Tobias Harris knows his team will have to match Orlando’s intensity to save its season.
“We’re a little too casual. Everybody knows that. In our locker room, we have to be better.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.