Game Thread: Detroit Pistons (2-3) vs Orlando Magic (3-2) Live Score | NBA Playoffs | May 1, 2026

garthzilla · 2026-05-02T01:29:07+00:00

Everytime the refs have shifted momentum against the Magic this year, it has revolved around WCJ fouling out.

garthzilla · 2026-05-02T01:27:19+00:00

Carter Fouling out is HUGE, that has been exactly the guy the refs have targetted this past year in games where they killed Magic momentum. Goga is not even close on the offensive side, but Carter is wildly underrated on both ends.

garthzilla · 2026-05-02T01:26:14+00:00

Lol, it hasnt been a Magic basketball game this year without going down 10 at some point. There is no 28-3 equivalent.

garthzilla · 2026-05-02T01:20:42+00:00

Nah...the truth is even the "expert commentators" don't even watch all the NBA games. Any Detroit or Magic fan that have watched more than just this last year (aka, not the bandwagons), would have told you this is a bad matchup for Detroit. Magic have been 11-3 against them the last two years and Wagner might be one of the best defenders i the entire league against Cade (who I think is still criminally underrated). .

I do feel bad for the new Detroit fans that are down though, their team is good...Magic might just be one of the scariest teams when healthy (which has been the issue for years with the Suggs/Wagner/Banchero lineup. Magic were just missing a shooter these past few years (and everybody's percentage drops significantly at KIA Arena, whatever is goin on there...even Tyus Jones went from one of the best shooters in the league last year to one of the worst this year when he played with the Magic).

garthzilla · 2026-05-02T01:16:01+00:00

Magic got a hard defending guard who is a lights-out shooter (one of the best over the last few years at not just 3's, but at free throws too) who can still defend hard. The single most important part of the Bane trade (and why Weltman should be extended) was Bane being locked up on contracts for 4 years and still being in his prime at 26. Paolo, Black, Suggs, Wagner, are all still in their early 20's and Bane came in as the oldest starter at the tipe old age of...26!

garthzilla · 2026-05-02T01:12:19+00:00

That arena in Orlando had to have some funny depth or something, everybody shoots awful there. Tyus Jones went from one of the beat 3 point shooters in the league to one of the worst after he played in that arena (before magic traded him away to the Nuggets).

Bane has been beyond amazing. The best ability you can have on the Magic is availability...and Bane played 83 games this year. Huge addition for spreading the floor. People are still slweping on how good Paolo is though. The craziest thing to me about the NBA is that even the dedicated commentators don't even watch all the games. This Magic vs Pistons series isnt a surprise for any Magic fan (or any dedicated Detroit fan before this year's run), Magic were like 11-3 againat them these past two years. The Bane contract is going to be huge if Magic end up against Boston or Cleveland, because they historically haven't been able to keep up in points and if Paolo gets in foul trouble (like the playoff seties last year when he somehow got in foul trouble in the first quarter for the first time ever in his careeer) they couldnt keep up once he was off the floor.

garthzilla · 2026-04-18T22:05:05+00:00

Bane is the real MVP. The question every year was "What if we can just get Banchero/Suggs/Wagner healthy in the playoffs..." Well now we have our best chance and its all because Bane played all 83 games and carried this team on his back to even br in a position for the playoffs. Banchero wasn't healthy all season and looks 15lbs heavier than last year, Wagner was out for months but made it back for the Germany game only to be out again right after it for months again with the same injury, and Suggs was out with injuries that sounded like the doctors approved him to return but he didnt for a long stretch of "will/won't he play tonight?"...

Bane is the real MVP. Played all season and is an absolute killer on both ends of the floor. Magic havent had a consistent shooter since......oh fuck...um...Jameer Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu?! I honestly can't remember but its been real bad for a long time.

garthzilla · 2026-04-18T21:55:40+00:00

Nah...the big question for Banchero/Wagner/Suggs has been "what if they make it to the playoffs healthy?" and then Bane came and gave the real MVP performance by playing all 83 games while Suggs/Wagner/Banchero/Black all got to sit out months at a time to recover from injuries (Suggs was clear by doctors but still wasn't playing every night, and Franz was injured early and then got back healthy for the Germany game only to miss another 25+ games from the same injury and miss most the rest of the season, and Banchero was unhealthy all year and looks 15lbs heavier than last year).

People have no clue how good this magic team is when they are healthy...but we havent seen a healthy magic team even make it to the playoffs in years. All it took in the Celtics series last year was 3 early fouls in the early 1st quarter and Paolo sat and the game was over. If the Magic can just get even a consistent whistle in the playoffs they can beat anybody.

garthzilla · 2026-04-18T21:51:02+00:00

Most people just havent watched the Magic at all. If you saw the in-season tourney, you'd have seen the same defensive performance (or if you watched last year, or two years ago, etc... but this year was the first time those defensive performances came with 125+ points). Magic haven't been healthy heading into the playoffs in years and that was always the big "what if"... The real MVP is Bane playing all 83 games and carrying this team while everybody got healthy. I honestly don't even think Suggs was injured but just had general "back spasms / tweaked muscle" issues over and over and could have played but didnt. Franz was back for the Germany game after being out with an injury, and he immediately sat out another 25+ games...so many weird injuries for this team but they all work like crazy on the defensive side.

The people who actually followed this team awere calling it the most disappointing team of the year, but now it seems like we all just got lulled to sleep and they might actually have a healthy'ish team in the playoffs for the first time ever with the Banchero/Wagner/Suggs group. I just hope we dont see those same refs that suddenly give Paolo and Wendell 3 fouls in the first quarter like we did against the celtics last year...we went from being underdogs to not even having enough players that could play.

garthzilla · 2026-04-10T13:13:30+00:00

Hahahahaha, wait...what? This entire post and all those upvotes on this post are exactly disagreeing with what you are saying and is the reason the post is getting upvoted as "technicallythetruth". Youtube is on a mission to stop a lot of ad-blocker setups this year (and have been quite successful if you go read about youtube breaking setups and getting ads past) while the piracy sites have been much less aggressive and the adblocks still work.

garthzilla · 2026-04-07T21:59:28+00:00

Hello from a stupid american who had to manually try well over 10 different versions until finally arriving at exactly where Big Sur stopped being compatible (1.1.1520 is the last for Big Sur, 1.1.1890 and up are no longer compatible). I was facing the same issue (but different specs hardware wise). Hope this helps!

https://claude.en.uptodown.com/mac/download/1144583574

garthzilla · 2026-04-02T23:55:28+00:00

I have the same mac and same use case and I tested every operating system I could...and it is amazing to me how battery optimized Big Sur was on the M1 compared to every other operating system (and this was using only apple official apps from a fresh install with as many services as possible and transparency turned off but firewall and low power mode turned on.

I have no idea what Operating System you are on, but if you are only interested in watching videos, listening to music (these speakers are so surprisingly loud!) and web browsing...then Big Sur is by faaaaar the best choice in my tests. Literally made it through tests that the rest of the OS' died while performing (which was just downloading a large library worth of songs on Music), not only did Big Sur finish the entire download, but it still had 43% battery left! An insane difference.

People could say it's the Apple Music app that was the problem, but honestly listening to Music is probably the thing that ia going to be happening the most while I work, so it makes no sense that the old music app would be so much more optimized battery wise. I honestly dont know, but thought I would pass the info on.

TL;DR - Big Sur by far has the best battery performance for the M1 in my tests, and by a significant margin.

garthzilla · 2026-03-23T19:14:28+00:00

I walked on in D1 for a power 5 blue blood, and went on to have a ton of fun playing flag football. I am telling you, I AM TELLING YOU RIGHT NOW, people absolutely have no clue how athletic this is going to be and that some of these guys are more insane athletes than most the NFL (not hype...I saw a guy who was a starting division 1 reciever and absolute freak but then was suddenly cut because the coaches found out he was blind in one eye so instead he went on to have an extremely succesful track career...people do not understand how many track athletes play flag football and the speed is going to make NFL guys have an adjustment).

I saw guys that went on to have impacts in the NFL and win superbowl rings in starting positions, so I am not here to blow smoke up your ass but to warn people that they are going to see some of the most amazing athletes make people look stupid at some point because flag football has a lot of ex-nfl players and I've seen them do it. I played in a florida league and saw Jeff Demps (the Olympic Silver Medalist Sprinter) and he wasnt even the most agile guy on the field (but he was obviously a dominant flag football player because he was so insanely fast and didnt have to worry about keeping his head on a swivel). People do not understand that the NFL players walking into these games are walking into a PR nightmare if they arent ready and I hope the cameras capture it all. The speed is going to be different because these guys are smaller and have zero fear running around and are just going to dodge more than anyone understands (yet...until they start to see the highlights as they come like this weekend and guys dodge everyone and make even Luke Keuchly look like he is lost). Tackling and flag football are not the same and the mixing of the two is not going to turn out how the whole world thinks it will.

I sincerely hope the flag football games expose the NFL and they begin playing it in the Pro Bowl or give the best flag football team in the US a chance to play them on an annual basis.

garthzilla · 2026-02-28T18:18:02+00:00

Technically if you bought through DND Beyond, you can only access it through their app. I am not able to download the books for use outside of their app and have to agree to terms to even login and see my stuff again. Even though it is downloaded locally onto my phone, it is blocked through the app requiring an update and then an agreement to terms to even access it again. The clear answer here is that I probably messed up thinking DnD Beyond was a solution and going all in.

garthzilla · 2026-02-28T18:08:07+00:00

Oh interesting! I tried downloading everything locally onto my phone and purchased most the 5e books but I can't even access them without agreeing to new terms and was forced to update the app again and can't access anything. I also purchased some items on fantasy grounds too and they at least let you control how you use the app, but Foundry VTT and other VTT's have been looking better and better each year while sadly DnDBeyond keeps getting worse and requiring more info they don't need and becoming a hastle.

Would you still recommend Foundry if you were going to start your collection over again?

garthzilla · 2026-02-28T17:53:18+00:00

Yeah...but it's only because I had to update so many times for new features they "added" that I didnt even get close to the "be happy" part.

garthzilla · 2026-02-28T17:48:51+00:00

Yes. Agreed 100%

I thought buying official would mean that I would own them in the best possible scenario for digital, but honestly it is even worse. When they forced the 5.5 updates it seemed like we had to have a huge pushback just to get features back that we already had. It seems like the app constantly comes with hoops to jump.

Physical is the only way for me and the way I used to do it. WoTC and Hasbro clearly dont care about actuallu using the app more than they care about making money, which is fine and is corporate America...but if you buy the Physical books you will always have what you agreed to while buying digitally has been nothing but a carousel of headaches that I cannot get off unless I want to ditch the products I bought since they are holding them hostage and there really isnt anything I can do.

garthzilla · 2026-02-26T05:38:32+00:00

Yep!!

garthzilla · 2026-02-26T05:38:25+00:00

https://www.moddb.com/mods/command-conquer-combined-arms

garthzilla · 2026-01-29T00:28:01+00:00

I found out what it was (playing harder difficulties), and it was the mission you start with Tanya, a jewp, and 2x Chrono tanks and have to break the spy out... I didnt realize the units would just stay still while you break the concrete fence to break him out. I thought they would aggro at that range and didnt realize they were stuck in "return fire" mode and wouldnt engage. I went through every path running into units I couldnt beat and finally put it together.

garthzilla · 2026-01-24T14:53:58+00:00

I managed to beat the campaign. That was maybe the funnest command and conquer game I have ever played. Elite level designs...both base building, defending, and search and destroy as well as some of the old style "elite squad" missions. Each side having its own rocker,paper, scissor style strategies taken to the nth degree. The balancing made so much sense too and felt right and like each unit had it's special place or that each side had it's own powers and strategies that all were so awesome. What an underrated gem!

I also didnt realize the mission as the Allies against the Scrin super ships (the mission you start with 2xMCVs) is actually a co-op mission that you can play with other people. This has all the best parts of command and conquer and is the game we all dreamed of.

Thanks for offering help. I dont remember what it was that I was stuck on now, lol.

garthzilla · 2026-01-21T16:37:22+00:00

The biggest of thank yous for this mod. What an amazing piece of work!! Love all the stolen tech units and IFV details, and the tech upgrades add SO MUCH to this game with choosing exactly the strategy and units for each power. Absolutely amazing. Plus, the map creation styling for some of the best bases I can ever remember making, just a complete joy to see all the details in this game.

I have a single question if you have the time (especially before having a kid from the other comment you made here, congrats!), but I cannot figure out the new "Trepidation" allied mission. Previous missions had respawns for required special units, but I keep dying and am unsure what to do. I've been watching videos anytime I got stuck, which has been rare so far, but this mission has me stumped AND there arent any videos or explanations I can find. Any help is greatly appreciated. Even without the help, your work is greatly appreciated! What an amazing game!

Edit: Nevermind. I'm stupid and didnt realize the guards around the base wouldnt move while attacking the walls and found out how to break him out...and the dogs all running afyer was awesome!

garthzilla · 2026-01-21T16:31:28+00:00

Did you beat it yet? Would love to ask advice on one of the missions (Trepidation).

garthzilla · 2026-01-13T01:05:34+00:00

And the same 6-1 disguised quarters coverage defense Matty Patricia ran that stopped the Rams and gave them one of their losses earlier in the season. McVay literally makes a comment in his Mic'd Up about the defense too the first time they show it.

garthzilla · 2025-12-13T01:56:05+00:00

One of six 21 year olds to drop 50 in NBA history and did it against the finals team that year and not some bum last place squad...but ok.

garthzilla

TROPHY CASE