The Pistons’ Cade Cunningham got to the rim and made a layup with 12.4 seconds left, tying Detroit’s game against Orlando.
The Magic had one last shot, gave the ball to their All-Star Paolo Banchero, cleared out the side, and this happened.
PAOLO BANCHERO OFF-BALANCE JUMPER WINS IT ‼️ pic.twitter.com/VfQyTOulun
— NBA (@NBA) February 25, 2024
Watch that again, it looks like a travel with the feet being shuffled. We’ll see what the Last Two Minutes Report says.
“We wanted to get the last shot,” Banchero told the Associated Press. “When I got the ball, I was looking at the clock and wanted to get it down to the last possible second.”
Banchero finished with a team-high 15 points as Orlando won with a balanced attack where eight players scored in double digits. Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs each finished with 14 points.
“That’s our superpower,” Suggs said. “When we can have the second group come in and dominate their bench, that’s a huge plus for us.”
The Magic have won three in a row and 8-of-10 as they fight for playoff seeding. With this win, the Magic are tied with Indiana for the sixth and seventh seeds in the East, just half a game ahead of the Heat (and 1.5 back of the shorthanded and slumping 76ers). It will be a tight race for playoff positioning down the stretch and Orlando needs wins like this to stay in front.
Cunningham led the Pistons with 26 points.
