Paolo Banchero, Magic force Pistons to unfortunate 18-year NBA Playoffs streak

Paolo Banchero, Magic force Pistons to unfortunate 18-year NBA Playoffs streak originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Orlando Magic are not what they seem. Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner have led this team to the NBA Playoffs before, that experience surfaced. They battered down the Cade Cunningham-led Detroit Pistons in Game 1. Unfortunately, the top seed in the Eastern Conference continues to have a curse that dates back to 2008.

Magic force Pistons to 18-year NBA Playoffs home win drought

The Pistons have now lost all of their home NBA Playoffs games since 2008, per Underdog NBA. Their loss to Paolo Banchero and the Magic marked the 18th-year of that streak continuing too. Moreover, this also means that the Pistons have lost 11-straight NBA Playoffs games at home. To put that into perspective, Tayshaun Prince, Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess, Rasheed Wallace, and Rip Hamilton were all still in the starting lineup.

Cade Cunningham and Co. were not able to notch the lead at least once in this game because the Magic were in control. Banchero was able to rally the Magic to lead as much as 13 points and those proved to be too much for the Pistons. The Orlando superstar notched 23 points by knocking down 53.3% of his shots from the field while also going 50% from three-point range. Franz Wagner was also a big help as he dropped 19 points while grabbing five rebounds, four assists, and stealing the ball twice from the Pistons.