A Magic Upset, a Lakers Surprise, Playoff Wemby, El Cheapo, Bill’s Award Flip, and Other Round 1 Notes With Zach Lowe

“Orlando looked awesome against Charlotte in the last playoff game, and they just have oscillated between this like, we're dead, we're dying, we're going to break up the whole team to like, oh my God, this is the team that everyone thought we would be when our over was 50 and a half, and some people like this idiot right here took the over. I just, once they beat Charlotte like that, I was like, maybe they'll just carry this momentum a little bit further. I don't know what this means for the rest of the series, but super impressive start by them.”

“They basically took Duren out of the game. I voted for him, second team All-NBA. He was like an afterthought. He might as well have been a backup center. And they really bullied him and didn't let him get any of the pick and roll stuff. And Pistons moved back to being the Cade-centric team. That was our biggest fear with them in the playoffs. It's like Cade or Bust. I don't know how they did it in two hours.”

“Suggs has been, the minutes have been all over the place this year for him. Even in the playing game on Friday, I think he played 22 minutes. But he played 36 today. And really looked like the Suggs from the guy that basically got that giant contract. Just a two way, all over the place, most annoying player possible, everywhere, hands touching everything. So they had that.”

“Detroit, all the things they do to exert their will and their physicality on everybody else don't work as well against Orlando because Orlando is as big and strong and nasty as the Pistons are. You said a key word which is health. Anthony Black is back and Franz Wagner is back. Maybe that's just part of what this is and why we didn't see this team together the whole year. When Suggs is in the lineup, I've called him the skeleton key of their team before.”

“For the most part, when I see that, I just quit on the team completely. So I can't even imagine what it's like to be an Orlando Magic fan right now. Because there's no way after the Philly playing game, there's no way anyone could have believed in Orlando after those two games, right? So now it's like, maybe that's what happened. They had to hit rock bottom. Maybe they had some great team meeting that we don't know about.”