2026 Playoffs Round 1 - # 1 Detroit Pistons vs # 8 Orlando Magic

[All Eyes On Me]

Something to watch, we’ve been excellent at home and abysmal on the road in the postseason the last 3 years. 0-8 away from Kia, 5-1 at home. That needs to change for us to make any sort of noise.

[Luke_FfS]

32 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

You wanna tell us your prediction, Luke? lol

First of all, I consider absurd talking about ECF or things like that, when we were one game away from being eliminated from playoffs.
Then, I would surely take one series at a time, and particulary one game at a time.

That said, I had a little optimism against CHA, as they weren't so solid against Miami, and was confirmed. I'm surely more happy to play Detroit than Boston, or maybe even Cle or NY, I agree it's a pretty good matchup, considering what a 8th seed could find against a 1st.
But... Detroit is not Charlotte, they've already been there last season, and like it happened to OKC initially (beaten at first round and then exploded), they showed a great resilence all season long. They could be really dangerous, even if the fact that Cade had problems recently could help a bit.

About us: it's easy now to say that if we are going to always play like last night, we could be a real contender. Hell, yeah, the little problem is that we haven't played a single game like this in all season, we've been as inconsistent as it get, full of issues with players and coach, and our rival will not always been Charlotte.

My take is that we could have a good fight with Detroit, but we'll lose the series 4-1, or 4-2.

[JayMagic]

36 minutes ago, Luke_FfS said:

First of all, I consider absurd talking about ECF or things like that, when we were one game away from being eliminated from playoffs.
Then, I would surely take one series at a time, and particulary one game at a time.

That said, I had a little optimism against CHA, as they weren't so solid against Miami, and was confirmed. I'm surely more happy to play Detroit than Boston, or maybe even Cle or NY, I agree it's a pretty good matchup, considering what a 8th seed could find against a 1st.
But... Detroit is not Charlotte, they've already been there last season, and like it happened to OKC initially (beaten at first round and then exploded), they showed a great resilence all season long. They could be really dangerous, even if the fact that Cade had problems recently could help a bit.

About us: it's easy now to say that if we are going to always play like last night, we could be a real contender. Hell, yeah, the little problem is that we haven't played a single game like this in all season, we've been as inconsistent as it get, full of issues with players and coach, and our rival will not always been Charlotte.

My take is that we could have a good fight with Detroit, but we'll lose the series 4-1, or 4-2.

Fair enough. Obviously I haven't been able to watch the last 3 or so months but I do know this. We haven't been healthy as a roster especially the starters. That starting 5 need more time to gel. We have a top 5 starting 5 in the league. If we play Magic defence we are beating the Pistons. 

[JJZFL]

1 hour ago, Luke_FfS said:

First of all, I consider absurd talking about ECF or things like that, when we were one game away from being eliminated from playoffs.
Then, I would surely take one series at a time, and particulary one game at a time.

That said, I had a little optimism against CHA, as they weren't so solid against Miami, and was confirmed. I'm surely more happy to play Detroit than Boston, or maybe even Cle or NY, I agree it's a pretty good matchup, considering what a 8th seed could find against a 1st.
But... Detroit is not Charlotte, they've already been there last season, and like it happened to OKC initially (beaten at first round and then exploded), they showed a great resilence all season long. They could be really dangerous, even if the fact that Cade had problems recently could help a bit.

About us: it's easy now to say that if we are going to always play like last night, we could be a real contender. Hell, yeah, the little problem is that we haven't played a single game like this in all season, we've been as inconsistent as it get, full of issues with players and coach, and our rival will not always been Charlotte.

My take is that we could have a good fight with Detroit, but we'll lose the series 4-1, or 4-2.

Yeah.  I’m done with this soap opera roller coaster where my expectations go from low to high or vice versa after each game.  I recall how good we looked the last five or six games, except for the last game against Boston, against teams who weren’t trying to win. It was easy to get an inflated opinion of our team based on those games. Now, in this case, Charlotte was clearly trying to win, and we outclassed them by a wide margin. However, Detroit is a much better team than Charlotte. Even if we play as well as we did against Charlotte, I doubt we will look anywhere near as dominant against Detroit.

I’m keeping my expectations measured. I hope we win this series, but I think the odds are against it. I’d only give us a one in four or one in five chance of winning.

[JayMagic]

3 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

Yeah.  I’m done with this soap opera roller coaster where my expectations go from low to high or vice versa after each game.  I recall how good we looked the last five or six games, except for the last game against Boston, against teams who weren’t trying to win. It was easy to get an inflated opinion of our team based on those games. Now, in this case, Charlotte was clearly trying to win, and we outclassed them by a wide margin. However, Detroit is a much better team than Charlotte. Even if we play as well as we did against Charlotte, I doubt we will look anywhere near as dominant against Detroit.

I’m keeping my expectations measured. I hope we win this series, but I think the odds are against it. I’d only give us a one in four or one in five chance of winning.

It's going to be a very interesting series that's for sure 

[JJZFL]

36 minutes ago, JayMagic said:

It's going to be a very interesting series that's for sure 

Definitely.  And I'm rooting for, and betting on, the Magic (I don't make very large wagers on sports, maybe up to $20, not much of a gambler).

Glad it starts tomorrow so we don't have long to wait.  After that, cadence slows down, with next couple of games separated by 3 days.

[JayMagic]

34 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

Definitely.  And I'm rooting for, and betting on, the Magic (I don't make very large wagers on sports, maybe up to $20, not much of a gambler).

Glad it starts tomorrow so we don't have long to wait.  After that, cadence slows down, with next couple of games separated by 3 days.

I may have a bet myself to be honest. I didn't even think of doing it until you mentioned it. The sooner the tip off the better lol

[TrueMagicFan07]

Good luck with Paolo or anyone who switches on guarding Tobias Harris. He plays a lot on the perimeter and can make those 3's. Remember, Harris and his cousin once played for the Magic.

[Luke_FfS]

Was looking at the advanced stats between the two teams, and while we're similar in a few ones, there're also differences and all of them favours the Pistons (it's quite obvious, being a 1st seed against an 8th)

Biggest one is clearly the net rating, them being way better on def, and quite better on off. Their off rebounding rate is also remarkable. Sligthly better efficience and TS%, while the pace is similar (our was not as fast as supposed in the end)

[zollman]

29 minutes ago, Luke_FfS said:

Was looking at the advanced stats between the two teams, and while we're similar in a few ones, there're also differences and all of them favours the Pistons (it's quite obvious, being a 1st seed against an 8th)

Biggest one is clearly the net rating, them being way better on def, and quite better on off. Their off rebounding rate is also remarkable. Sligthly better efficience and TS%, while the pace is similar (our was not as fast as supposed in the end)

Do these stats assume 100% health or are they derived based data captured while we had guys out w injuries?

[Shine88]

Watching the games yesterday and the one thing that stood out to me, the teams without a PG (Minnesota, Toronto and Houston) all got exposed. Hopefully, Suggs is on his game tonight and leaves all the aura farming at home.

[Luke_FfS]

7 minutes ago, zollman said:

Do these stats assume 100% health or are they derived based data captured while we had guys out w injuries?

Full season stats. Really hard to exclude, every team has injuries, Detroit was without Cade for the latest part of the season, for example.