Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s season-opening 125-121 loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night at Kia Center. Next up for the Heat (0-1) is a trip to Memphis to face the Grizzlies on Friday before returning home:
The Heat’s revamped uptempo offense was on display in the opener, and the results were positive for most of the night. But the Heat then hit a late-game scoring drought that cost it the game.
After pulling ahead by eight points — 109-101— with 7:49 left in the fourth quarter, the Heat scored just 12 points the rest of the way
That allowed the Magic to rally, closing the game on a 24-12 run to complete the comeback in what turned out to be a competitive game that included 10 lead changes and 13 ties.
There was an important moment with the game tied at 115 and 3:01 left in the fourth quarter, as the Heat challenged an offensive foul call on guard Norman Powell. But the Heat lost the challenge, leaving Miami with just one timeout the rest of the way.
The Magic and Heat again found themselves tied at 119 with 1:13 to play, but Orlando scored the next four points to take command of the game and pull ahead by four points with 37.3 seconds left.
The late-game drama came after a first-half offensive explosion from both teams in the first half.
The Heat and Magic combined for a high scoring first quarter that included 77 points. It went down as the highest scoring quarter of any Heat-Magic game ever.
The Heat started fast, pulling ahead by as many as 12 points in the opening period with the help of a hot 6-of-9 shooting start from three-point range. But the Magic closed the first quarter on a 14-3 run to cut the deficit to one point.
The Magic continued its push, beginning the second quarter on a 19-11 run to take a seven-point lead midway through the period before entering halftime with a 69-65 advantage over the Heat. It went down as the highest-scoring first half ever in a game between Miami and Orlando.
That scoring pace slowed a bit in the third quarter, as the Heat and Magic combined for 47 points in the period. The Heat won the third quarter 26-21 to enter the fourth quarter with a 91-90 lead before wilting down the stretch.
Powell totaled a team-high 28 points in his Heat regular-season debut, shooting 9 of 19 from the field, 4 of 8 on threes and 6 of 7 from the foul line. He also recorded nine rebounds and four assists.
The Magic were led by Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero, who each scored 24 points.
The two spots up for grabs in the Heat’s starting lineup went to guard Davion Mitchell and forward Nikola Jovic for the opener.
The three locks for the starting group were center Bam Adebayo, guard Norman Powell and forward Andrew Wiggins. But there were questions regarding whether Mitchell or Dru Smith would start alongside Powell in the backcourt and whether Jovic or Kel’el Ware would start alongside Adebayo in the frontcourt.
For Wednesday’s opener, Mitchell started over Smith in the backcourt and Jovic started over Ware in the frontcourt.
The Mitchell-Powell-Wiggins-Jovic-Adebayo lineup was outscored by two points by the Magic in 14 minutes together on Wednesday.
Four Heat starters finished with double-digit points.
Along with Powell’s 28 points, Wiggins finished with 18 points, four rebounds and one assist.
Adebayo totaled 15 points, 12 rebounds and two assists.
Mitchell was impressive with 16 points, six rebounds, 12 assists, two steals and one block.
Whenever guard Tyler Herro returns from ankle surgery, he’ll be plugged into the starting group likely in Mitchell’s place. Herro is expected to miss at least the first month of the regular season.
The Heat’s bench provided some quality minutes, especially from forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
The Heat used Jaquez., Simone Fontecchio, Pelle Larsson Ware and Smith off the bench to complete its 10-man rotation for the opener.
Jaquez was solid, contributing 13 points, six rebounds, one assist and two steals in 30 minutes.
The available Heat players who were left out of the rotation on Wednesday were Terry Rozier, Keshad Johnson, and the three-way contract trio of Vlad Goldin, Myron Gardner and Jahmir Young.
The only Heat players unavailable for Wednesday’s opener because of injury were Herro and Kaspras Jakucionis (right groin strain). That left Herro, Jakucionis and Young as the Heat’s three inactives.
Much of the talk entering the game on the Heat’s side was the need to grab rebounds against the glass-crashing Magic. But turned out to be a non-issue for Miami until the fouth quarter.
The Magic outscored the Heat by a combined margin of 72-34 in second-chance points behind a 45-26 advantage in offensive rebounds in the teams’ two matchups this preseason.
But the Heat held the Magic to just nine second-chance points on four offensive rebounds through the first three quarters on Wednesday.
However, Orlando came away with six important offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter to spark its late-game comeback.
While the Magic is aggressive on the glass and has size, Wednesday’s quality rebounding performance from the Heat shouldn’t be surprising.
The Heat has been one of the NBA’s best defensive rebounding teams in recent seasons, as it has finished with a top five defensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabs) in each of the last three regular seasons.
The Heat lost another season opener in Orlando.
Wednesday’s game marked the sixth time in the past 10 seasons that the Heat has opened the regular season against the Magic, with five of those games coming in Orlando. For perspective, the last time the Heat opened a season on the road and the game wasn’t in Orlando came in the 2011-12 season when it faced the Mavericks in Dallas on Dec. 25, 2011.
The Heat also has dropped most of those season openers against the Magic, as Miami is now 1-5 against Orlando in those six season-opening matchups over the past 10 seasons.
In addition, the Heat now lost three games to the Magic in the last three weeks after also losing two exhibitions to Orlando this preseason earlier this month.
While Orlando is expected to be among the Eastern Conference’s top teams this season, it doesn’t get much easier moving forward.
Not only will the Heat play six of its first eight regular-season games on the road and embark on a West Coast trip next week, but 11 of the Heat’s first 15 games come against opponents that made the playoffs last season.