Drop, Flop, & GYATT! DET@ORL
Orlando finds Magic in the 4th as Detroit falls 113-121
Man, how can a player so cold for three quarters get so hot to dash Detroit’s dreams of a three-game road win streak? Franz Wagner single handedly tore up the Pistons in a battle of best bud head coaches. Cade Cunningham’s monster stat line of 35 | 11 | 5 with 2 steals wasn’t enough. Much like against Phoenix when Booker and Durant dropped big figgys, Paolo Banchero and Franz put up 32 apiece. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff wasn’t even around to see it, as he got tossed before game’s end. It was a hard fought match, the boys of Detroit never gave up, but a 20-4 Orlando start to Q4 was too tough. Let’s take a looksee.
DROP
While the refs did drop 6 techs on the Pistons, it was not the most detrimental drop of the night. Franz friggin’ Wagner, who had been 1-12 on leading up to the fourth, went an absurd 9-10 and dropped 25 points in the final frame as the Magic, one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league, when 45.5% from downtown Orlando. For the majority of the game, Ausar had Franz’s number, lunch, and maybe even his girlfriend, but FW gave Detroit the FU and just went off on em, from inside and out, and far too often wide open.
GUHHHH, WAGNER.
FLOP
Okay, let’s backtrack to where all this beef really started. And this time it didn’t start with Beef Stew, but a different kind of beef. Tobi-Beef.
After Jalen Suggs through a shoulder into Tobias Harris’ chest, the typically tame Uncle T took exception to that nonsense and gave Suggs a shoulder back. Jalen took the opportunity to fly off Tobias like an extra stepping on an explosive in a Michael Bay movie.
It was ruled a flagrant, and the tone of the night was set. Rough, tough, big bad boy stuff.
Unrelated, Tobias went out late in the game with an injury and did not return. Heal up soon, my guy, this team REALLY needs its +/- leader.
GYATT!
Just when it looked like Detroit was dead in the Disney water, Cade Cunningham willed them back with everything he had. And, as often is the case, what he has best was some nasty bag work combined with a dime to Lob-Me-Two-Times Jalen Duren.
With this transition bucket, Cade secured his double-double for the night but unfortunately it just wasn’t enough.
Detroit showed some real fight, and they have a squad full of dogs WOOF WOOF WOOF with Ron, Ausar, Stew, Sasser, and even Beasley and Cade. But right now, they have to depend way too much on their top dog Deuce to do too much. There have been a few games where they’ve severely missed Ivey, and this was another one of those, as Cade had to be rushed back on just a few minutes into the 4th to stop the bleeding. They need someone else to put up some points and relieve some of the pressure on our King of the Monsters (you think I’m gonna stop pushing this, you must be outta your mind). Maybe Trajan Langdon feels the same way, maybe not, or maybe they don’t think the piece is there this year, but this loss could be another indicator of the action we could see at the deadline.