ORLANDO -- Before the game, Erik Spoelstra said his hope was that the grueling six-game road trip awaiting the Heat would galvanize his team and usher in a new level of defensive consistency.

It didn’t start out that way.

Without its starting point guard for the first time this season, the Heat played listlessly Wednesday at Amway Center and lost to the Magic 102-89. It was Miami’s second loss of the season to a divisional opponent. The Heat (19-7 overall) is now 4-4 on the second night of back-to-backs.

“They set the tone right from the get-go,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Magic.

Meanwhile the Heat was out of sorts from beginning to end. . Mario Chalmers was placed on the inactive list less than an hour before the game, and the Heat struggled with only one true point guard, rookie Norris Cole. Surprisingly, the normally fearless rookie approached the opportunity a bit timidly. He only attempted eight shots and finished with nine points.

“I would have liked to have won — that’s the main thing” Cole said. “But I made some good plays out there but still have a long way to go to learn in this league.”

Dwyane Wade did everything he could to keep the game close in the first half (24 points), but he could no longer do it alone in the second half. He finished with a game-high 33 points in the loss. The Heat was outscored 24-11 in the pivotal third period.

The Magic (16-10) dominated the Heat inside out and out. From the perimeter, Orlando set a franchise record for three-point attempts with 42. The Magic made 17 from behind the arc (40.5 percent) with forward Ryan Anderson knocking down five of six in the first half. He finished the game with 27 points.

“You can’t stop a team from taking threes,” Wade said. “This team does a great job of spreading you out.”

Then there was Dwight Howard, who played like he wanted to be in Orlando for the rest of his career. Howard had 25 points and 24 rebounds, falling two rebounds shy of tying his career high. He had 21 points and 20 rebounds entering the fourth quarter.

The combination of Howard’s inside dominance and the three-point fireworks was too much for the Heat.

“Sometimes you’ve got to pick your poison, but we gave up both tonight,” said LeBron James, who finished with 17 points, 10 assists and six rebounds.

The loss was a nightcap to an unusual day for James, who found himself on the receiving end of a few choice words from Oklahoma City Thunder big man Kendrick Perkins. Perkins apparently took exception to James’ words on Twitter after Perkins was dunked on by Clippers forward Blake Griffin on Jan. 30. Perkins said James “is always looking for attention and he wants the world to like him.”

James’ response: “I can see why he may have felt embarrassed, but I would never apologize for connecting with my fans on social media. That’s what it’s all about, and I don’t think I was the only one who reacted to that unbelievable play by Blake.”

Later in the day, a comment by NBA icon Larry Bird on ESPN played off of Kobe Bryant’s of NBA championships and James’ lack thereof.

“It’s simple,” James said. “Kobe has five rings and I have none, so it’s easy to say that. I’m an easy target. Let’s just say that.”

James then tried to make light of slights.

“If someone wants to get a point across, then just throw LeBron’s name in there,” he said. “If you’re watching cartoons with your kids and you don’t like it, you say blame it on LeBron. If you go to the grocery store and they don’t have the milk that you like, you say it’s LeBron’s fault. I’m an easy target and I understand that.”

It’s hard to blame Wednesday’s loss on James, but he did shoot 5 of 15 from the field and 0 of 2 from three-point range. Of course, the biggest difference in the game was the Magic’s 17 offensive rebounds compared to just nine for the Heat.

“When the get all pistons going on this team they’re tough to defend,” Spoelstra said. “We have a team concept where we really try to disrupt their paint opportunities but then use our speed to get to the three-point line. They started knocking down all those threes and that’s the human condition now: You start to become less aggressive on packing the paint.”