NBA Playoffs: Pistons, Rockets stay alive; Cavs grab 3-2 lead
Detroit's Cade Cunningham drives on Orlando's Wendell Carter, Jr. during Wednesday night's Game 5 of their Eastern Confernce first round playoff series in Detrot. (AP photo)
DETROIT (AP) — Cade Cunningham scored a franchise playoff-record 45 points, including a step-back jumper with 32 seconds left, and the top-seeded Detroit Pistons beat the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic 116-109 on Wednesday night in Game 5 of their first-round series to stave off elimination.
Orlando leads the series 3-2 and will get a second chance to advance at home on Friday night.
The Magic fell to 0-10 in franchise history on the road in a Game 5.
Detroit never trailed and went ahead by 15 early in the final quarter. The Magic made one more run, pulling within three points on Paolo Banchero’s sixth 3-pointer with 1:09 left. Banchero matched Cunningham with 45 points, also a playoff career high — but he missed 7 of 12 free throws.
The Pistons are hoping to bounce back from the brink of elimination as they did against the Magic two-plus decades ago.
Detroit’s comeback in 2003 as a No. 1 seed against eighth-seeded Orlando was the first of seven times NBA teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit this century. The Denver Nuggets were the last team to pull off the feat in 2020, when they became the first franchise in the league to do it twice in one postseason.
Magic forward Franz Wagner was sidelined with a strained right calf. He had 19 points in two-plus quarters before he departed late in the third quarter on Monday night and averaged nearly 17 points and 5.5 rebounds over the first four games of the series.
Cunningham was 13 of 23 from the field, making a playoff career-high five 3-pointers, and was 14 of 14 at the line in what proved to be the difference in a duel with Banchero, also a former No. 1 overall pick.
Tobias Harris scored 23 points for the Pistons, All-Star center Jalen Duren snapped out of a slump with 12 points and nine rebounds, and Duncan Robinson also scored 12.
Anthony Black had a playoff career-high 19 points, Desmond Bane scored 18 points and Jalen Suggs added 10 for the Magic.
The Pistons played with a sense of urgency at the start after being rusty or flat early in previous games.
Detroit led by 17 in the second quarter, but the Magic cut the deficit to six points by halftime. Orlando pulled within two points early in the third and Cunningham’s fifth 3-pointer late in the quarter helped the Pistons take an 89-79 lead into the fourth.
CAVALIERS 125, RAPTORS 120
Dennis Schroder scored 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, Evan Mobley hit a pair of pivotal 3-pointers in the final period and finished with 23 points, and the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied for a victory in Game 5 of their first-round series.
Cleveland leads the series 3-2. Game 6 is Friday night in Toronto.
James Harden scored 23 points and Donovan Mitchell added 19 for the Cavaliers.
“This was a step for us from a mental toughness point of view. I thought we showed good poise and resiliency,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “When you could have let your guard down, our guys kept with it.”
RJ Barrett led Toronto with 25 points while Ja’Kobe Walter added 20 and Jamal Shead had 18 off the bench.
The Raptors led 74-67 at halftime and scored the first five points of the third quarter. The Cavaliers slowly rallied but trailed 103-100 going into the final 12 minutes.
ROCKETS 99, LAKERS 93
Jabari Smith Jr. scored 22 points, Tari Eason added 18 and the Houston Rockets avoided playoff elimination for the second straight game on Wednesday night, trimming Los Angeles’ lead in the first-round series to 3-2.
Alperen Sengun had 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists for the fifth-seeded Rockets, who sent the series back to Houston for Game 6 on Friday night with a gritty performance to overcome Austin Reaves’ return to the Lakers.
Houston has won two straight even without top scorer Kevin Durant, who has missed four of the series’ five games with injuries.
No team has ever recovered from an 0-3 deficit to win an NBA playoff series, but the Rockets are halfway. Only four of the 159 teams to start a series down 0-3 have ever even forced a Game 7.
LeBron James scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half and added seven assists, but Los Angeles lost its second straight after stealing Game 3 with an improbable rally in the final seconds of regulation.


