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DETROIT (AP) — Paolo Banchero wanted to say the diplomatic thing.
He just couldn’t do it.
Shortly after Banchero’s Orlando Magic lost 116-94 to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday in Game 7 of their playoff series, he was asked if they have enough talent to win in the NBA.
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Seated on the postgame press conference stage, Banchero hesitated before answering.
“I want to say yes, but this the third straight time we haven’t gotten out of the first round,” he said. “So if you are going off the last three years, the answer is no. The nice answer is yes, but honestly speaking, I can’t say we’re good enough to be in the finals or the Eastern finals, because the last three years, we’ve had the same result.
“So that’s your answer.”
Banchero has every reason to wonder. In the first four games of the series, he averaged 20 points and Franz Wagner scored 17.8 per game as Orlando took a 3-1 lead.
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Wagner, though, sustained a calf injury that kept him out of the last three games. Banchero picked up his pace, averaging 33.3 points in the final three games, including 38 in Game 7, but he never got any help.
He had 32 points on 12-for-22 (54.5%) shooting through the first three quarters Sunday, but his teammates only scored another 32, making 27% (10-for-32) of their shots. Banchero was 4 for 7 on 3-pointers (57%), while his teammates were 4 for 16 (25%).
“We just couldn’t find the basket,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said. “We were playing well on defense, but we couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”
That capped off five horrific quarters of offense that cost Orlando a chance to win the series as the No. 8 seed.
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It started at halftime of Game 6. The Magic held what looked like a comfortable 22-point lead, only to score 19 points in the second half on 10.8% shooting.
They put up a decent 49 points in the first half on Sunday, then slumped to 15 in the third quarter as the Pistons built a 19-point lead. That’s 83 points in six quarters — an average of 16.6 points. That’s on pace for 66.4 points for four quarters, which would struggle to win playoff games in the 1950s, much less the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/paolo-banchero-wonders-magics-future-000058305.html
Author : DAVE HOGG
Publish date : 2026-05-04 00:00:00
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