J. Kyle Mann

The Iron Man of first dates.

Agreed.

Second dates?

I don't know.

Substance revealing vulnerability?

That's not our Justin.

I think who both of these teams are.

I think the biggest shift from game one to game two, like holistically for me, is just how attached and connected the Pistons' defense felt.

And this is when they really ratcheted up all of that intensity, all of that pressure, but then covering for it on the back line, rotating to the point that they're forcing turnovers and shot clock violations and crazy shots out of the Magic in the process.

During that stretch...

Orlando made one shot over the course of eight minutes, one for 10 with six turnovers, zero free throws during that time, just if you're keeping the accounting.

I mean, they looked brutal, but they looked exactly as brutal as the Magic have at many points in this season.

Well, they often don't.

I mean, they don't have the spacing to make that stuff easy.

And so that was part of what was so shocking about game one was how like seamlessly they were able to infiltrate the paint, get out in transition and kind of facilitate some of that flow, some of that momentum.

But this does feel a little more indicative of what the night-to-night struggles of the Magic were.

Some nights they have the ability to kind of plow through that with their own physicality, with their own defense, with their own offensive rebounding.

That just certainly was not the case in the third quarter where I think boat race is apt.

really they just kind of fucking turned to dust during that stretch.

So we'll see kind of what version of the magic we get going forward.