Decades Ago, a Rising Pistons Team Survived a 3–1 Playoff Deficit to the Magic. Can Detroit Do It Again?

The Pistons are headed back to Orlando down 3–2 to the Magic after a hard-fought Game 5 win. The NBA world is collectively shocked the No. 1 seed is on the edge of elimination like this to the No. 8 seed, despite the remarkable scoring talent that No. 8 seed boasts; Detroit’s defense, anchored by a young up-and-coming All-Star center, seemed too good for that during the regular season.

The year is 2003.

Yes, the Pistons have been here before. Not these Pistons. Most of these Pistons were only just learning to crawl (or weren’t born yet) 23 years ago. But as a franchise they’ve been in this exact spot—on the verge of elimination to a much worse team on paper after a great regular season, with the looming consequences of an early exit casting a long shadow. A head coach in his second season on the sideline. A talented point guard leading the roster. A dearth of shooting combined with a rough-and-tumble defense that’ll run the opponent ragged. The similarities are greater than you’d think given how different the NBA was decades ago.

Last time around, Detroit pulled off a 3–1 comeback by winning three straight against Orlando. It led to an eventual Eastern Conference finals loss, which built the foundation for the famous ‘04 Pistons championship team. To this day they are heralded as one of the best teams to win a title in modern NBA history, one of the few exceptions to the overarching rule that the roster with the best talent will raise the Larry O’Brien.

The 2026 Pistons are hoping they’ll be able to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors, both in this series and beyond. Wednesday night’s Game 5 win was a good first step.

How the Pistons pulled off their last playoff comeback over Magic

Pistons vs. Magic — The Pistons and Magic faced off several times in the 2000s. | KIRTHMON F. DOZIER, Detroit Free Press

The 2002–03 Pistons won 50 games to earn the No. 1 seed in the East that year. It wasn’t quite the surprise this year’s Detroit team was; one year prior the Pistons earned the No. 2 seed and acquired the strong backcourt duo of Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups over the offseason. Manned by Rick Carlisle, in his second season on the Detroit sideline, they were one of the top teams in the NBA for much of the year and entered the playoffs as serious contenders for the title.

They drew the No. 8 seed Magic in the first round. That year’s Orlando team featured 23-year-old Tracy McGrady, who had just won the first of his two career scoring titles by leading the league with 32.1 points per night. The roster around him had some interesting names such as Grant Hill and Mike Miller but injuries resulted in Drew Gooden being the second-leading scorer behind T-Mac during the postseason.

Nevertheless, the Magic jumped the Pistons in the first four games, mostly thanks to McGrady. Orlando won at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Game 1, dropped Game 2 and then won both home games to go up 3–1. McGrady had two 40-point performances and overall averaged 36.3 points per night in the first four games of the series. Detroit had no answer for him and was on the verge of an embarrassing washout; to that point only two No. 1 seeds had lost in the first round and the Pistons would have been the first to do so in a best-of-seven series.

But, as we know, a furious rally turned it around. They managed to shut down McGrady (as best they could) and completely throttled the production around him. Detroit won the next three games by an average margin of 20 points. Billups woke up and scored 77 points in Games 6 and 7 combined. In short, the Pistons played like the No. 1 seed they were all year after getting overwhelmed by Orlando’s top talent.

They’d move on and survive another round before falling in the ECF; one year later they’d raise a championship banner.

Can the 2026 team follow in their footsteps?

Cade Cunningham will have to step up if the Pistons are to survive. | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Like their predecessors the Pistons got overwhelmed by the Magic to start this series. Orlando outplayed Detroit in pretty much every facet over the first four games. At large, Paolo Banchero is not the second coming of T-Mac, but one could be mistaken for thinking so after watching him play this series (especially after his gorgeous 45-point showing on Wednesday night). But the Magic are good enough to knock the Pistons off their game and talented enough to get across the finish line after doing so.

Game 5 should inspire some hope Detroit can pull this off, though. The Pistons won and survived another day thanks to a glorious performance from Cade Cunningham, who scored 45 points of his own. He will have to keep doing that as the most talented offensive player on the roster, much like how Billups carried his team to a series win 23 years ago. This Pistons team is just as flawed offensively as that ‘03 squad, which is a pretty big problem given the offensive advancements over the decades, but Cunningham is good enough to keep it going.

Which will be the key. Detroit has played decent defense for most of this series. That end of the court isn’t really the problem. But all the defense in the world can’t compensate for poor offensive production in today’s NBA. Beyond Cunningham’s star-level production, the Pistons have shot 45% or better from the floor in their two wins this series. In the three losses? Detroit never shot better than 43%. It’s a narrow gap but it makes all the difference.

We already know this team won’t roll over. If they were going to do that the series would be over already. But a steep climb still awaits if they want to repeat history.

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