It wasn’t the best season debut for the Heat, which after a disastrous third quarter fell to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday at the Pat Riley court christening at Kaseya Center.
It was a shame after the nice tribute to the team president, having played a very good first half.
But in the second, Miami seemed not to be ready for this campaign to start and yielded, without palliatives, 116-97 to a Magic that was far superior.
Suffice it to say that Jimmy Butler barely scored three points (1-8) with four rebounds and five barren assists and Bam Adebayo barely reached nine. Nothing good to stand out in this debut by the Heat.
So much so that if only this game were valued, it could be said that Miami has no team to qualify for the playoffs and that winning the title is an unfounded dream.
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But the Heat only has 0-1 and 81 games to turn the situation around and perhaps this good hit in time will serve to wake up.
The best of the club’s Ffloridan was Terry Rozier with 19 points 6 rebounds and five assists. He really went to the only one who saw him wishing to play.
He was followed by Nikola Jovic with 15 units, thanks to the 6 achieved playing between the reserves one more than Tyler Herro who reached 14, with 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
While Jaime Jaquez Jr. finished with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists to lead an inconsequential second unit.
I think we started the first half with good chances. “You know, the chances were three points, but we missed those shots and now we have to trust some of the things we’ve been working on,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said.
They have a very good defense, one of the top five. They are very active for a long time and their second chances really gave them life.
The peak moment of his defense came at the beginning of the third quarter but was reinforced further after the departure of Jovic, who had defended very well under the boards, with four fouls.
For Orlando, Paolo Banchero stood out, unstoppable with a double-double of 33 points and 11 rebounds Franz Wagner with 23, Gary Harris with 18, Jalen Suggs with 11, and Anthony Black with 10.
The first half ended 58-54 in favor of the Magic led by Banchero with 18 cartons, with two baskets over the end, after two very equal and intense quarters with some inaccuracies of the Heat that had Herro with 14 points and Rozier with 11 as his best men.
The first most contested fourth could not be with 7 draws and 11 exchanges on the tip, so the final score 32-32 was a faithful reflection of what happened.
For Miami, which came to take 8 points ahead, they highlighted Jovic with 9 units and Herro with 7, while Banchero was the best in Orlando with 11.
Nothing changed in the second, even though the game intensified. It was a partial in which the Heat was in the lead for most of the time and both teams came tied at 51 within 3 minutes, but a Banchero basket with a one minute and a triple from Garry Harris missing a second gave Orlando the fourth 26-22.
After the tribute to Riley, he started the third with a 13-0 run for the Magic that extended his lead to 16 points in the blink of an eye.
But that was only the prelude because later with a 27-8 partial, Orlando extended the lead to 23 points remaining more than four minutes and leaving the game to be sentenced.
Nothing went out to Miami in the partial and its neighbors imposed its stature (20-2 points in the paint) to take the quarter 39-18 and take advantage 97-72.
Only a miracle could help the Capital of the Sun quintet go back 25 cartons in the last quarter and miracles don’t exist in the NBA.
After cutting 6 points at the start of the partial, the Heat could only contemplate the Magic extending the difference to 32 points.
Spoelstra pulled out the white flag, put the reserve to play, and soon after the rival technician Jamahl Mosley imitated him by putting his own to finish the process.
With Jovic, Miami won the 25-19 partial, but couldn’t avoid a tough defeat by 19 points of difference.
