Pistons rally from 24 down, beat Magic 93-79 to force Game 7

Detroit’s rebuild reached a different register Friday night, not because of one hot shooting stretch but because a young team found enough defense and poise to survive a 24-point hole and keep its season alive. The top-seeded Pistons beat the Orlando Magic 93-79 in Game 6, wiping out a 62-38 deficit early in the third quarter and sending the Eastern Conference first-round series back to Detroit tied at 3-3.

Cade Cunningham carried the charge with 32 points, but the win was defined as much by structure as by star power. Detroit ripped off a 34-4 run to turn the game, and Orlando missed 27 of its final 28 shots as the Magic collapsed after controlling the first half. The quarter-by-quarter split told the story plainly: Detroit won the final two periods 24-11 and 31-8 after being outscored 35-12 in the second quarter.

The Pistons’ defense tightened until Orlando could not find a clean answer. Detroit went through the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter without allowing a Magic field goal, a stretch that erased the memory of the first-half deficit and forced the crowd and the series into a different emotional state. Duncan Robinson’s late 3-pointer and Cunningham’s and-1 in the fourth quarter helped seal the comeback, but the larger point was that Detroit stopped surrendering control.

That matters because this was not an isolated escape. Detroit had already beaten Orlando 98-83 in Game 2 to end the NBA’s longest home playoff losing streak, then watched the Magic answer with a 113-105 win in Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead. Game 6 gave the Pistons something bigger than a single result: evidence that a team built around Cunningham can absorb pressure, defend in long stretches, and still execute when the margin disappears.

Orlando, with Paolo Banchero, Desmond Bane, Jalen Suggs and Wendell Carter Jr. in the mix, had seized the game early and looked ready to finish the series at home. Instead, Detroit turned a night that threatened to end its playoff run into a benchmark for the franchise’s next step. Game 7 returns to Detroit on Sunday, and the question is no longer whether the Pistons belong in the series. It is whether this young group has already become a credible contender in the East.