It had to be Detroit.
It seems as though in the recent past, the Detroit Pistons always get to the Orlando Magic. Just five years ago, Tracy McGrady and the Magic blew a 3-1 first round lead to Detroit, who would go on to win the championship the following year.
This year, once again, Detroit was simply the better team.
They gelled together as a team down the stretch and came through in the clutch to secure four victories in five games. Orlando had their chances, but a series of bad decisions and unsuccessful plays caused them to choke under pressure.
The key thing that put this series out of reach was losing Game 4 in Orlando. With home advantage being more beneficial than ever in this year's playoffs, the Magic needed to take advantage of every opportunity and simply could not afford to lose at home and return to Detroit down three games to one.
They were at too large of a disadvantage and simply were not strong enough of a team to come back from such a deficit against a team with a lot of successful postseason experience.
However, the Magic will only get better. They have the makings of a great team built around franchise players Jameer Nelson and Dwight Howard. Adding Rashard Lewis brought a lot of energy to this team and a greatly improved Hedo Turkoglu improved the lack of clutch play in Orlando.
Look for Orlando to try and strengthen their bench this off-season and further develop their team play.
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