Jamal Mosley hits back at Paolo Banchero’s ‘adjustment’ claim

The Orlando Magic‘s 106-92 loss to Cade Cunningham’s Detroit Pistons were their second straight lossboth of which came despite a big lead after the first half. Against the Houston Rockets, they came back from a 10-point lead in the second quarter, and against Detroit they had seven before fading in the third quarter.

Speaking after the game, the star man Paolo Banchero suggested that the Magic had not adjusted to the changes their opponents made in the second half. Now, the head coach Jamahl Mosley appeared to hit back directly, claiming the only change the Pistons made was playing ‘harder’ according to the post on X of Magic beat reporter Jason Beede.

#Magic Coach Jamahl Mosley was asked after practice about Paolo Bancher’s postgame comments regarding second half adjustments:

“One adjustment Detroit made last night — they just played a little harder. … There wasn’t a schematic adjustment they made.”

Full notes: https://t.co/V53dsSkFCE pic.twitter.com/3A4gf6Br8i

— Jason Beede (@therealBeede) March 2, 2026

“Yeah, I think one adjustment that Detroit made last night, they just played a little bit harder. They got into the ball, they were catching it a little bit more, they were clogging up the paint a little bit and our decisions were getting slower because there were a lot of gaps. There weren’t any schematic adjustments that they made. It was more or less (along) the line to turn more, he said the defense turned it over,” he said. responsibility directly on his players.

Mosley went into detail, claiming the game was lost in transition.

“If you look at the third quarter, they had about two or three blocks at the rim. They turned us over. They built walls in transition. As we went downhill in that first half, they built a bigger wall than we could go down in those situations. And then they did a great job downhill on offense after we turned that basketball over to the rim.”

Paolo Banchero lamented the lack of adjustment in Detroit’s loss

Banchero didn’t necessarily shy away from responsibility and wanted better communication with his teammates to respond to their opponents changing tactics mid-game. Asked what could have avoided the loss, Banchero cited better communication.

“Just being more organized. Being able to communicate with each other, what we’re trying to do. Teams adjust a lot at halftime and I think that’s why we struggled a lot in the second half, just because we don’t adjust to their adjustments. So then we need to see how they play with us and we just need to clearly communicate to each other what it is to fight, especially to fight run and keep playing good basketball,” he said.

The Magic will now host the Washington Wizards in an attempt to avoid a hat trick of losses. They are still 7th in the Eastern Conference at 31-28, but they have the likes of the Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets in close pursuit.