The boisterous Kia Center crowd celebrated victory on Monday. They were euphoric as the Orlando Magic closed out another close game and took a 3-1 series lead. Everyone could feel how close the team is to its first playoff series win since 2010.
The massive dunk and plays from Jamal Cain in Game 4 followed the huge shots from Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero to close Game 3. The Kia Center felt like a fortress.
As the Magic came back to the locker room, the message was very different. This was not a time to celebrate. The team did its job.
There is one more job to do.
"[The win means] nothing," coach Jamahl Mosley said after Game 4. "We put ourselves in position to try to get four. Right now, it means nothing. We have the advantage. Now we have to try to make sure we keep that advantage."
In the locker room, the message was very similar.
Jamahl Mosley repeated what Kobe Bryant said after the Los Angeles Lakers took a 2-0 series lead over the Orlando Magic with an overtime win in Game 2 of the 2009 Finals when he said the job is not done.
There is nothing to celebrate. There needs to be that appropriate fear that the Pistons can come back -- they have done so in this exact situation before historically. And the last win is the most difficult to get in any series.
Desire to win
It still feels like a "pinch-me" moment for the Orlando Magic to be in this position to close out a first-round series after everything the team has gone through this season.
The Magic were facing elimination less than two weeks ago in their game against the Charlotte Hornets. They looked mostly dead in the water with all the inconsistency that has plagued them this year. The idea of being in a competitive series seemed far-fetched.
Everyone knew this team had the talent and capabilities to have a series like this.
The Playoffs seemed to unlock another level to this team. It sharpened their focus.
"It's the playoffs. We've got winners over here and guys who want to win," Paolo Banchero said in the locker room after Game 4. "We didn't want to go out sad even though the regular season didn't go how we want. We wanted to write our own history and make some noise in the league. Obviously, we have one more game we have to win. You can't be satisfied going up 3-1. You've got to refocus and do what it takes to get one more."
The opportunity to win is what mattered. And the Magic getting a reset when the postseason began gave the Magic plenty of motivation to find their groove.
The Orlando Magic have gotten back to their defense, most importantly, holding the Detroit Pistons to 100.3 points per 100 possessions. That is the best defensive rating in the playoffs so far. Detroit has an 18.7 percent turnover rate, giving the Magic just enough transition and open-court opportunities to find some offensive spark.
This is how the Magic always wanted to play. This was the vision they had.
And it has brought them to the doorstep. It has not gotten them through the door. The team seems to realize that.
"It's a sigh of relief, but you never want to look at it that way," Wendell Carter said in the locker room after Game 4. "We did a great job taking care of business in the first four games. But it's the first to four. That's what our mindset is. We don't care about what happened in the past. We just care about the next game."
The Magic will need to get one more win. This is still a 60-win Pistons team. Orlando has played very well to take control of this series. But Orlando has not accomplished anything yet.
Reliving the history
The players on the Orlando Magic likely would resonate more with the Kobe Bryant line from 2009 than what happened when the 8-seed Magic faced the top-seed Detroit Pistons in the first round six years earlier.
Like that series, the Magic scored an upset in Game 1 to take homecourt advantage. They won Games 3 and 4 at home handily too for a 3-1 series lead.
Tracy McGrady famously said (even if he disputes it now) that he was happy to be out of the first round up 3-1 in the first year of the best-of-seven first round. The Pistons proceeded to win Game 5 by 31 points and Game 6 and 7 by 15 points each.
Orlando got put back in its place as Detroit began its dynastic run of Eastern Conference Finals appearances.
Even though teams up 3-1 win their series 95.6 percent of the time, there are still plenty of notable examples of teams losing that lead. And with just one home game to close things out with a possible Game 6 on Friday, the pressure is on the Magic to close the series and avoid facing elimination on the road.
Orlando has been waiting to see Detroit deploy its full physicality. The Magic have been able to match it. But they may see a new level of desperation in Game 5.
"They are obviously going to play with a sense of desperation, especially on their home court," Franz Wagner said in the locker room after Game 4. "Just have to have the same mentality that we had tonight and take the fight ot them and play one play at a time."
The Pistons used rookie Tayshaun Prince to slow down Tracy McGrady in the 2003 series. Detroit may benefit from Wagner's calf strain to find a wedge to get back into this series. He did not participate in the Magic's shootaround on Wednesday, and Paolo Banchero said the team does not expect him to be available to play.
Regardless of the conditions, the Magic have not accomplished anything. This team has not won a series yet. This is the challenge ahead of the Magic to close this team out.
"The reality is the job is not done," Jamahl Mosley said after Game 4. "We have given ourselves the chance and put ourselves in position with a 3-1 lead to go get the fourth. That's the reality of it, and that's the focus of saying one game at a time. That's all you need to do is take care of one game and you have given yourself a better opportunity and chance going up 3-1. But it's still not done."
All Orlando has done is put itself in the position to win. The job is not done.
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