The Athletic: An unlikely underdog has the Magic on the verge of a major upset

Jamal Cain of the Orlando Magic dunks the ball during the game against the Detroit Pistons.

There, between Games 3 and 4 of their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons, Jamal Cain asked Desmond Bane if Bane ever feels nervous during playoff games. Bane explained that he feels apprehensive, but his worries evaporate once the game begins.

Bane told Cain that everyone on the Magic roster believes in him, and advised Cain to try to remain confident and level-headed.

That talk made a massive difference Monday night. Knowing that his teammates supported him, Cain played a pivotal role in Game 4 as the Magic upset the Pistons 94-88. Orlando needs only one more victory to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Franz Wagner suffered an injury to his right calf midway through the third quarter, forcing Cain to serve as a primary defender on Pistons point guard extraordinaire Cade Cunningham. Cain not only helped to frustrate Cunningham, but he also scored eight points and collected nine rebounds, all of them crucial in an intense, sometimes frantic, game.

With Orlando clinging to a precarious 78-76 lead in the fourth quarter, Cain delivered one of the most emphatic — and most consequential — dunks of the NBA postseason. Cain dribbled three-quarters of the length of the court, sped past Cunningham and elevated off two feet in the lane, slamming the ball with his right hand over hulking Pistons center Jalen Duren. Duren fell onto his backside, Magic fans within the announced crowd of 19,040 inside the Kia Center leapt off their seats and players on the Magic’s bench jumped up and down.

The sequence changed the tenor of the game.

Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. watched Cain’s dunk from several feet away. When the ball hurtled through the hoop, Carter yelled, along with the fans. “I don’t really think words can describe what I felt when he did that,” Carter said later.

Cain’s performance resonated on so many levels. He grew up in Pontiac, Mich., a suburb of Detroit. When he and his grandfather would play the popular NBA 2K video game series, Cain would always be the Pistons, with a special focus on point guard Chauncey Billups.

Now he’s facing the Pistons in the playoffs, attempting to eliminate the team he grew up watching after its 60-win season. His loved ones piled into Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena for Game 1 and Game 2 to watch him play.

“I put some of my friends and family in a tough spot because they’ve been ride-or-die Pistons fans,” Cain said. “But it’s definitely a special moment, especially going back to Detroit and having my whole family come out to watch me play, especially in the playoffs. I mean, words can’t describe how I feel, honestly.”

“They’re sending bodies at him,” Pistons backup center Isaiah Stewart said. “They’re trying to get the ball out of his hands in every way.”

Cain contributed to some of those shooting struggles and also drew a pair of key Pistons offensive fouls. With Orlando ahead 87-85 with 4:10 remaining in the fourth quarter, he was guarding Cunningham when Caris LeVert set an illegal pick and sent him to the ground for Detroit’s 19th turnover of the night. With Orlando ahead 89-85 with 2:56 left in the game, Cain drew an offensive foul on Duren for another illegal pick, Detroit’s 20th turnover.

It was a theme for the evening. The Magic scored 23 points off Pistons turnovers, and the Magic also compiled 16 second-chance points.

Cain and his teammates will take a 3-1 series lead into Game 5 Wednesday night in Detroit.

“We’ve put ourselves in position to try to get four (wins),” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “But right now, it means nothing. We have the advantage, and now we’ve just got to make sure we try to keep that advantage.”

“You know,” Magic forward Paolo Banchero said, “it’s first to four (wins), not first to three (wins). So like I say, great win here at the crib, protect the home court. But it’s not over. We’ve got to go do what we need to do.”

It will be difficult. Orlando has played superior defense almost the entire series, but it has struggled to generate offense in the half court. On Monday, the Magic made only 33 percent of their field-goal attempts. As has so often been the case in recent years, 3-point shooting was their Achilles heel; they made only nine of their 35 tries from beyond the arc.

Wagner’s injury is a worry. He said he started to feel discomfort in his right calf approximately one minute before he checked out of Monday’s game with 6:20 remaining in the third quarter. He did not return.

The severity of the injury is unclear. Wagner said he will receive an MRI on Tuesday.

“It just sucks to come out of the game,” he said. “The most important thing is that we got the win, and we’ll figure out the rest tomorrow.”

Cain almost certainly will receive extended minutes if Wagner cannot play in Game 5.

Bane’s talk may have crystallized Cain’s mindset, but the entire team has told him that he belongs in the NBA as a rotation player.

“It helps a lot,” Cain said. “I don’t think no one can do this on their own.”

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Josh Robbins is a senior writer for The Athletic. He began covering the Washington Wizards in 2021 after spending more than a decade on the Orlando Magic beat for The Athletic and the Orlando Sentinel, where he worked for 18 years. His work has been honored by the Football Writers Association of America, the Green Eyeshade Awards and the Florida Society of News Editors. He served as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association from 2014 to 2023. Josh is a native of the greater Washington, D.C., area. Follow Josh on X @JoshuaBRobbins