Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 121-117 loss to the Orlando Magic (38-28) on Saturday night at Kaseya Center to close its four-game homestand at 3-1. The Heat (38-30) now enters a two-day break before hitting the road for another important game on Tuesday against the Hornets in Charlotte:
The Heat is getting healthier, but it still can’t beat the Magic. Miami’s season-best winning streak is over at seven games.
The Heat got its top two scorers Tyler Herro and Norman Powell back from injury on Saturday. Herro returned after missing the previous two games with left quad soreness and Powell returned after missing the previous seven games with a right groin strain.
But the Heat again lost to the Magic on Saturday, dropping all five matchups against Orlando this regular season. Because the Heat also played the Magic as part of the NBA’s in-season tournament, Miami and Orlando played each other five times this regular season instead of the usual four regular-season meetings.
The Magic took control of the game at the start, ending the first quarter with a 41-27 lead and pulling ahead by as many as 22 points in the second quarter before entering halftime with a 71-55 advantage.
The Heat made a run to pull within nine points with 1:25 left in the third quarter. It marked the first time that Miami cut Orlando’s lead to single digits since the first quarter.
But the Magic quickly responded, scoring the final six points of the third quarter to enter the fourth period with a 15-point lead.
The Heat kept pushing, though, even with the Magic ahead by 16 points with 5:54 left in the fourth quarter.
The Heat went on an 18-6 run to cut the deficit to four with 43.2 seconds to play.
After a Magic turnover, the Heat got possession with 36.6 seconds left a chance to cut it to make it a one possession game.
But Heat guard Pelle Larsson didn’t get the inbounds pass in on time, as the officials called five-second inbounding violation to give the ball back to the Magic.
The Heat was then intentionally forced to foul Magic guard Jalen Suggs to extend the game with 23.2 seconds to play. Suggs missed both free throws to keep Orlando’s lead at four and keep Miami’s comeback hopes alive.
After the Heat grabbed the rebound off of Suggs’ second missed free throw, forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. rushed the ball up the court and drew a foul. Jaquez hit both free throws to cut the Magic’s lead to two points with 18.5 seconds remaining.
Unfortunately, the Heat then just ran out of time.
The Heat intentionally fouled Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. with 11 seconds left, but Carter made both free throws to put Orlando back ahead by four.
Powell then made a two-point shot to bring the Heat back within two points with 8.6 seconds to play.
Following another Heat intentional foul, forward Paolo Banchero made two game-sealing free throws to put the Magic back ahead by four with 7.8 seconds remaining.
Banchero was the start of the night for the Magic, finishing with a game-high 27 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field, 1-of-3 shooting on threes and 10-of-10 shooting from the foul line to go with eight rebounds and seven assists.
The Magic overcame its sloppy 20 turnover performance with the help of efficient 49.4 percent shooting from the field and 11 offensive rebounds.
Jaquez scored a team-high 22 points in 30 minutes off the bench for the Heat.
Bam Adebayo added 20 points, seven rebounds, one assist, four steals and two blocks for the Heat.
The only Heat players unavailable on Saturday were Nikola Jovic (low back injury management), Terry Rozier (not with team) and Andrew Wiggins (left big toe sesamoiditis).
The Magic was missing Anthony Black (abdominal strain), Colin Castleton (G League), Jonathan Isaac (left knee sprain), Alex Morales (G League) and Franz Wagner (left ankle sprain injury management) on Saturday.
With the Heat going winless in five matchups against the Magic this regular season, it marked the first time that the Heat has gone 0-5 against an opponent during a single regular season since losing all five games to the New York Knicks during the 1992-93 season.
Not only does Saturday’s loss make it really hard for the Heat to catch the Magic in the standings, but it also dropped the Heat back into play-in tournament territory.
With Saturday’s loss, the Heat (38-30) moved two losses behind the fifth-place Magic (38-28) in the Eastern Conference standings with just 14 regular-season games left on Miami’s schedule. But the Heat is essentially three losses behind the Magic because Orlando owns the head-to-head tiebreaker after sweeping the teams’ five-game regular-season series.
Saturday’s defeat also dropped the Heat from sixth to seventh place in the East, falling percentage points behind the sixth-place Raptors (37-29).
The NBA’s play-in tournament features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
The Heat, which has needed to qualify for the playoffs through the NBA’s play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons, needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to clinch a playoff spot and avoid the play-in tournament.
With Herro and Powell making their returns from injury on the same night, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra continued to try to stagger some their minutes. That led to Powell playing as a reserve for the first time this season.
The Heat opened Saturday’s game with a starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Herro, Pelle Larsson, Kel’el Ware and Bam Adebayo.
That left Powell playing off the bench for the first time this season. Powell, who entered Saturday averaging a team-high 22.5 points per game and was the Heat’s lone All-Star this season, started in his first 49 appearances of the season before playing as a reserve against the Magic.
With Saturday marking just the 12th game that Herro and Powell have both been available so far this season in large part because Herro missed a large chunk of the schedule due to injuries, they closed the game together.
Herro and Powell played 14 minutes together on Saturday, with the Heat outscoring the Magic by three points during that time.
Since the NBA All-Star break, Herro and Powell have played 29 minutes together.
When Herro returned from a rib injury following the break, he was used as the reserve and Powell played as a starter.
But with Herro being moved to the starting lineup and flourishing during Powell’s recent absence to win Eastern Conference Player of the Week for his work last week, Herro remained a starter and Powell was moved to the bench upon their returns Saturday.
Herro was inefficient on Saturday, though, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field and 2-of-8 shooting on threes.
Powell caught a second-half rhythm in the second half of his first game of the season as a reserve.
After scoring just six points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field during a shaky first half, Powell appeared to find his rhyhtm down the stretch.
Powell scored 14 points in the second half to end his first game in two weeks with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes, one rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes off the Heat’s bench on Saturday.
Powell was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Jaquez, Kasparas Jakucionis and Myron Gardner on Saturday.
It was a revenge game for ex-Heat forward Jamal Cain.
Cain, who spent two seasons with the Heat on a two-way contract before leaving Miami in the 2024 offseason, was an X-factor for the Magic against his former team.
Cain totaled 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and one block in 19 minutes off the Magic’s bench on Saturday.
This was a standout game for Cain, who entered averaging just 2.7 points and 0.7 rebound per game in 23 appearances for the Magic this season.
The 12 points Cain scored on Saturday are his new season-high.