Magic 110, Pistons 103

Early hole too deep for Pistons in loss to Magic

Ted Kulfan / The Detroit News

Orlando, Fla. -- The hex the Pistons had over the Orlando Magic temporarily ended.

Entering Friday, the Pistons had defeated the Magic in 20 of the last 25 meetings, including earlier in the week at The Palace.

There was a sense the Magic would come out with a little more intensity back home, and they sure did in a 110-103 victory.

Orlando (5-1) shot a blistering 73.7 percent in the first quarter while taking 40-23 lead.

"Any time you let a team score that many points, it's going to be tough to come back. You are fighting an uphill battle," Ben Gordon said. "We knew they'd come out early and try to throw the knockout punch."

For a second consecutive game, a terrible quarter forced the Pistons to play catch up.

"They're a very explosive team and we had talked about in the morning the way they could score in the first quarter," coach John Kuester said. "You have to keep things at a different pace."

The Pistons (2-4) gradually got back in the game, and came to within six, 96-90, on a Charlie Villanueva bucket with 3:30 left.

Villanueva had 28 points, 22 in the fourth quarter, including 22 of the Pistons' final 27 points.

"I was happy for Charlie," Kuester said. "That's why we brought him in, to give us a boost at that four position."

Villanueva was unavailable for comment after the game, but teammates were plenty happy to talk for him.

"Charlie was great," Gordon said. "He gave us a chance in the fourth quarter. He scored many in a row and became a consistent go-to guy. (But) you can't rely on one guy on any given night to try and bring us back from those kinds of leads."

Rodney Stuckey scored 20, Gordon 19, and Austin Daye 11.

Dwight Howard led Orlando with 22 points and Jameer Nelson and Matt Barnes scored 18.

"They're a very good basketball team and are well-coached," Kuester said. "They're somebody to be reckoned with. We just can't allow that first quarter to happen like the way it did."

After that explosive first quarter, the Pistons actually out-scored the Magic, 80-70.

"Our guys locked into what needed to be done defensively: Contesting shots," Kuester said. "Things were very comfortable for them early on and we tried to make it uncomfortable."

Said Stuckey: "We don't have a lot of problem scoring on this team. We have a lot of scorers. It's all about our defense. Once we get down and get all of our guys back, we need everyone to be on the same page. When we do that, we'll be fine."

Rookies Daye and Jonas Jerebko (nine points, six rebounds) had steady all-around games.

Meanwhile, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy wasn't entirely happy despite the victory.

"We're not playing smart enough," Van Gundy said. "... We had too many minutes where we were just hanging on to win a regular-season game. We weren't really making a big push to be great."

ted.kulfan@detnews.com (313) 223-4606