At the end of Jamahl Mosley's press conference following Game 3, he was asked how his team went from facing elimination a week ago to up 2-1 on the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
He asked the reporter back, "What do you think I'm going to say?"
Another reporter gave him the answer, "One game at a time."
"That's how you get here," Mosley said after Game 3. "You handle that the right way. You can't go back and look at eight days ago. You've just got to go at what today is. We got the win today, which is the right thing to do. Now we've got to go play one more game and figure it out from there."
The Magic have been in seeming survival mode for the last two months trying to claw their way out of the Play-In. Mosley began publicly preaching one game at a time during the team's seven-game win streak in March to keep this team with a level head. It was necessary as the team gave back six of those games and fought through some difficult losses.
Orlando was in a mad dash to the end of the season. And with all the noise that has surrounded this team all year, they could do nothing but wall themselves up and focus on what was directly in front of them.
Maybe part of this series has been the Orlando Magic's desperation to get in against the Detroit Pistons, who held the lead in the East for so long, easing into the Playoffs. Whatever the case is, it is a series now.
And both teams have the same approach. Now, it is all about focusing on the next game in front of them and nothing else.
The game is about the little things
The Detroit Pistons are now facing the reality that they are trailing in the series and trying to make up ground. That is a position they have not been in for most of the season.
Ever since their early-season 13-game win streak, the Pistons have been in control of the top spot in the Eastern Conference on their way to a 60-win season. Detroit has built itself into one of the top defensive teams in the league and a group that is often able to bully and be more physical than its opponents.
What has perhaps shocked them in this series is that the Orlando Magic have matched that physicality from the beginning.
They have done a good job closing off the paint -- taking the Pistons from a league-leading 57.9 points in the paint per game in the regular season to 43.3 per game in this series.
They have controlled the offensive glass too. Detroit has gone from a 35.4 percent offensive rebound rate in the regular season to 30.9 percent in the playoffs. The Magic have outrebounded the Pistons on the offensive glass in this series.
Detroit might have been thinking about the bigger picture and easily passing the 8-seed. But Orlando has forced the team to narrow its focus to survive.
"One possession by possession," Ausar Thompson said after Game 3. "Don't worry about necessarily the whole game. We have to win the little moments, little battles, offensive rebounds in the first quarter. They don't feel big in the first quarter, but you look back in the fourth quarter. So we have to be better at that."
With how tough these two teams play on defense. All of these little possessions certainly matter. The team that wins these battles wins the game.
In a tight series, the focus must narrow to the little things that determine games. Everything could be determined on who gets to a 50/50 ball and who scrounges out a rebound.
That is what happened in the fourth quarter when Wendell Carter outpositioned Jalen Duren for a critical rebound with two minutes remaining. It is all those little battles the Magic are winning.
All eyes on Game 4
The world can feel really bleak for a team down 2-1, especially on the road. There is a desperation to make up that ground and not return home for Game 5 down 3-1.
For the team that is ahead, it might be more difficult to find the same urgency. But they need it too.
Going back to a Game 5 on the road tied 2-2 is difficult as it is. The balance in the series could shift again with both teams showing they are capable of winning on the road.
Narratives change game by game. It is easy to get lost in all the different permutations this series could go through.
What is important than is the game in front of everyone. A one-game- and one-day-at-a-time approach is vital not to get buried in all the pressure and intensity.
"I guess it's one game at a time, and that's what layoff series are," Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after Game 3. "But you can't hang on to it. And again, our guys have been consistent all year that we've been able to move on to the next. So, I trust our guys. You know that we'll focus on it, we'll learn from it, we'll study it, we'll get better at it."
Each game indeed takes on its own life and its own story. There is no way to prepare for who will step up and what will happen. Shots that fell in Game 3 may not fall in Game 4. An adjustment might lock one door, but open another.
And so, there is no long-term planning in the Playoffs. There is only the next game.
Game 4 will go a long way to saying who wins this series. And both teams need to treat it as if it is the only thing that matters.
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