Jamal Cain added insult to Detroit‘s wounded ego Monday night. And we’ll never forget it.
It was bad enough the top-seeded Pistons were on their way to dropping another game to the 8-seed Orlando Magic and falling into a 3-1 series hole, but Cain’s empathic flush on Jalen Duren in the fourth quarter was the punctuation mark on what’s racing towards being a huge first-round upset.
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Don’t worry. I had to Google “who is Jamal Cain” too.
To save you the time, he was a two-way player for the Magic who played in 40 games this season and had his contract converted to a full-time deal in March. Orlando is his third team in four years since he went undrafted in 2022 out of Oakland. After all that, he had arguably the best moment of these playoffs so far.
I mean, just look at this dunk.
Cain’s backstory no doubt adds to the lore of the moment. He’s an underdog on an underdog… dunking on a lottery pick from the same year he went undrafted playing on the best team in the conference. And Cain dropped Duren like the Magic are about to drop the Pistons. It’s poetic.
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But the dunk itself was cold too.
The way the lane opened up for Cain to approach with a proper gather and Duren to get into position to time his jump gave us a split second to anticipate what was about to happen. And because this wasn’t someone like Anthony Edwards or Ja Morant, the possibilities seemed endless. Whatever was to come, though, had the potential to swing the momentum of a tight game.
Then, in the blink of an eye… BOOM! The end result didn’t disappoint. Cain won, and sure enough the Magic took off from there. Duren and the Pistons might be too broken to recover.
Losing to an 8-seed in the first round is disappointing on its own, as it’s only happened six other times in NBA history. But it’s especially bad in a year the East was thought to be wide open. If Orlando finishes the job, Cain’s dunk will be the lasting memory of Detroit’s massive letdown.
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For the first and probably last time, Paige Bueckers addressed her relationship with Azzi Fudd at Dallas Wings media day Monday. And she made it clear that nothing off the court between them has or ever will impact what happens on the court.
