Javonte Green Knows Detroit Pistons Can Do Better After Loss to Orlando Magic

Even at this stage of the season, the Detroit Pistons are still learning.

With the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference locked, the Pistons can live with nights like the one they had against the Orlando Magic, when they were humbled 123-107 on Monday. Missing eight players, including Tobias Harris, Duncan Robinson, Caris LeVert and All-Star Cade Cunningham, who missed his 11th straight game with a collapsed lung, they know they still need to keep their foot on the pedal.

Detroit have been on a heater in the absence of Cunningham, en route to clinching the top spot in the East, but Javonte Green, who had 17 points, knows that his side has to maintain the level they have been showing and not slack with their final position confirmed.

“I felt like we have been doing that all year when guys have been out,” Green said afterwards.

“We all have that next man up type mentality. I felt we came out flat, but in the fourth quarter, we picked it up. I felt like we can’t go out there and be lackadaisical when we are down a lot of men. We just have to go out there and play harder, play together.”

Case in point: The Magic ambush

On paper, the Magic, who already have a play-in spot locked, still had more to lose in this one.

Currently sitting in ninth, Orlando is cramped in the packed middle of the Eastern Conference standings, still with playoff aspirations and with this win, they kept alive their chances of finishing as high as sixth.

The Magic are aware that with three games left in the regular season, they could also finish as low as 10th.

With their postseason fate still to be decided, Orlando came out swinging against a lazy Pistons defense. Two Desmond Bane three-pointers in a span of 16 seconds put the Magic up 33-31 early in the second quarter, a lead they would eventually never relinquish.

Paolo Banchero scored a couple of buckets, which highlighted a 12-0 burst that stretched Orlando's lead to 26 points late in the third quarter.

Green and Kevin Huerter led a late fightback by the Pistons, and a three-pointer by Daniss Jenkins cut the margin to three points with 4:07 left before the Magic pulled away again.

But for Green, it should never have got to that.

“Our coach just challenged us to be better,” he revealed. “To go out there and share the ball and just see what happens. You know, we turned the ball over too much for our liking. Once we started taking care of the ball, we felt like we could get whatever we wanted.”

But the 26-point hole, mixed with a 98-76 deficit going into the fourth, was too much. Even if they “could get whatever [the Pistons] wanted, it was too late. Lesson learned.