In the NBA, there’s nothing better than a Game 7.
Fortunately for fans tuning in Sunday, May 3, there are two of them, between the No. 1 Detroit Pistons and No. 8 Orlando Magic and between the No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers and No. 5 Toronto Raptors.
In win-or-go-home scenarios, teams tend to elevate their play and compete with desperation. Perhaps no team is feeling that more than Orlando, which had a 3-1 series lead before it allowed the Pistons to win two in a row, the most recent after an epic choke job in Game 6 in which the Magic shot only 4-of-37 from the floor in the second half.
Here are the winners and losers from Sunday’s Game 7s:
WINNERS
Cade Cunningham
This is what a Most Valuable Player candidate is supposed to do. After he dropped a team-high 32 points in Game 7 Sunday, he brought his scoring average over Detroit’s last three games in the first round — all of which were elimination games — to 36.3 points per game.
Cunningham also dished out 12 assists and limited his turnovers, committing just 4.
Detroit finds a second option in Tobias Harris
He erupted for 17 points in the second quarter and scored 19 overall in the first half. Harris was the player who helped spark a massive run to end the first half, but he didn’t stop there.
Harris steadily knocked down shots and provided an outlet for Case Cunningham; when the Magic tried to blitz him with extra bodies, Harris took advantage and knocked down his shots. It may have been, considering the magnitude of the Game 7, the best game of his career.
Harris finished with 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting, adding 9 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists.
Jalen Duren
It was a good sign for Detroit that Duren, a first-time All-Star this season, had a productive first half. Duren has struggled to impact games this series and is averaging well below his regular season totals.
He was active on the glass and capitalized on second-chance opportunities, scoring 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting. He added 15 rebounds, though, moving forward in the second round, he could certainly be more aggressive in finding his mid-range stroke.
Paolo Banchero
He scored the Magic’s first 11 points and set the tone for Orlando, including draining the first three 3-pointers he attempted. Banchero aggressively sought his shot, and, when Detroit diverted more defensive attention toward Banchero, he tried to find his teammates.
He finished the game with 38 points on 14-of-25 shooting, adding 9 rebounds and 6 assists. His biggest issue was that his teammates simply didn’t knock down their shots.
LOSERS
Jamahl Mosley
The head coach of the Magic is going to face considerable criticism this offseason over the way Orlando squandered a 3-1 series lead and for that Game 6 collapse. Mosley simply didn’t do enough to halt the runs and the momentum that Detroit was building during pivotal games in the series.
To be clear, the Pistons, the No. 1 seed in the conference, are an extremely talented team, so it was to be expected that they would elevate their play once the stakes were highest.
The right calf strain to Franz Wagner significantly hindered Orlando’s offensive portfolio, But the execution still lacked creativity and flow. Not enough was done throughout the back half of the series to generate offense for Paolo Banchero’s teammates.
Magic role players in the first half
Orlando’s other starters combined to miss their first six shots of Game 7, and the Magic players not named Banchero shot just 8-of-27 (29.6%) in the first half.
While Banchero had 9 field goals in the first half, no other Orlando player had more than 2.
Jalen Suggs
With Orlando needing someone else to step up on offense, Suggs, the starting point guard, was an obvious choice. Yet, Suggs struggled once again on Sunday, completing what ended up being a very tough series for him.
Over Orlando’s final four games in the first round, Suggs combined to shoot just 8-of-41 (19.5%). It was even worse from deep; from Games 4-7 of the series, Suggs shot just 4-of-26 (15.4%) from 3-point range.
Magic turnovers in the first half
Orlando couldn’t afford to have careless possessions in the first half, and a 9-3 deficit in the turnover battle before intermission was the key reason why Detroit went on a 20-6 run to close the second quarter; the Pistons, not surprisingly, led the battle in points off turnovers 12-3 at halftime.
That helped set the tone for the rest of the game.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pistons vs Magic, Cavaliers vs Raptors today: NBA winners, losers