Magic crushes Heat on Pat Riley’s night. Takeaways and details from Heat’s season-opening loss
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s season-opening 116-97 blowout loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center. Next up for the Heat (0-1) is a quick trip to take on the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday before returning home:
After finishing with a bottom-10 offensive rating in each of the last two seasons, the Heat’s offense continued to struggle to begin this season. The Heat’s best two players also struggled to score.
The preseason was encouraging, as the Heat made tweaks to its offense in hopes of producing more efficient results.
But the regular-season opener wasn’t encouraging, as the Heat scored only 97 points on 38.6 percent shooting from the field, 11-of-34 (32.4 percent) shooting from three-point range and 22-of-29 (75.9 percent) shooting from the foul line against a stout Magic defense that finished last regular season with the NBA’s third-best defensive rating.
“Offensively, we have to trust some of the things that we’ve been working on in the preseason,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s looked a lot different than this. But obviously that’s a very good defense.”
The Heat posted an underwhelming offensive rating of 100 points scored per 100 possessions in the season-opening loss that would have ranked as the NBA’s worst team offensive rating last regular season.
How problematic is that number? The Heat ended last regular season with a 1-11 record when finishing with an offensive rating of 100 points scored per 100 possessions or worse.
The Heat’s leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler were part of the problem on Wednesday, combining for just 12 points on 2-of-13 (15.4 percent) shooting from the field. They combined to average 40.1 points per game last regular season.
Adebayo finished the loss with nine points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field, 0-of-2 shooting on threes and 7-of-10 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds and one assist in 26 minutes.
Butler recorded three points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field, 0-of-2 shooting on threes and 1-of-2 shooting from the free-throw line, four rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block in 26 minutes.
The Heat was outscored by 30 points with Adebayo on the court and by 30 points with Butler on the court.
With the Heat trailing by 25 points at the end of the third quarter, Adebayo and Butler did not play in Wednesday’s fourth quarter.
Terry Rozier (19 points), Nikola Jovic (15 points), Tyler Herro (14 points) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (13 points) all finished with more points than Adebayo and Butler.
“I mean, we played bad,” Adebayo said when asked to explain the loss. “It’s not really anything to that. That’s as simple as I can make it.”
The Magic broke the game open in the third quarter, opening the period on a 34-10 run to turn a four-point halftime lead into a 28-point lead.
The Magic dominated the Heat 39-18 in the third quarter. The Heat shot just 5 of 19 (26.3 percent) from the field and 4 of 13 (30.8 percent) on threes during the ugly period.
The Heat led by as many as eight points in the first quarter, starting strong with 32 points on 11-of-20 (55 percent) shooting from the field, 2-of-5 (40 percent) shooting from three-point range and 8- of-13 (61.5 percent) shooting from the foul line in the opening period.
But it was downhill from there, as the Heat totaled 65 points on 21-of-62 (33.9 percent) shooting from the field over the final three quarters. The Magic’s lead grew to as large as 32 points in the second half.
“I’m not too sure what happened in the second half,” Herro said. “We’ll watch the film and figure it out.”
Meanwhile, Magic star Paolo Banchero ended the night with a game-high 33 points. Franz Wagner added 23 points for Orlando.
“Banchero was great tonight,” Spoelstra said. “That’s an understatement, but he forced a lot of different things out of our defense. We need to shore that up and we will get better with that.”
The Heat’s new starting lineup logged its first ever regular-season minutes together on Wednesday. As one would expect in a double-digit loss, the results weren’t great.
As expected, the Heat opened the regular season with a starting lineup of Rozier, Herro, Butler, Jovic and Adebayo.
This group started the game strong, as the Heat built a 19-11 lead before making its first substitution 6:18 into the first quarter.
But the second half didn’t go as well, as the Heat’s starting unit was outscored 15-5 by the Magic before turning to its bench 4:22 into the third quarter. That stretch was the start of the Magic’s dominant third quarter, pushing its four-point halftime lead up to 14 with the Heat’s starters on the court.
In the end, the Heat’s new starting unit was outscored by six points in 14 minutes together on Wednesday.
With Kevin Love a late scratch, Thomas Bryant played as the Heat’s fill-in backup center on Wednesday.
Just minutes before tip-off, the Heat announced that Love would miss the opener because of personal reasons.
In Love’s absence, the Heat played Bryant as Adebayo’s backup over rookie center Kel’el Ware.
Bryant, who is in his second season with the Heat, finished the loss with seven points, three rebounds, two assists and one block in 16 minutes.
Ware, who the Heat selected with the 15th overall pick in the first round of this year’s draft, entered for his first minutes of the game with 6:15 left in the fourth quarter of the blowout loss.
This wasn’t a surprise, considering Love and Bryant played ahead of Ware throughout the preseason.
The Heat’s bench rotation for the first game of the regular season included Jaquez, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith and Bryant before the bench was emptied late in the lopsided game.
Two of the Heat’s three two-way contract players were inactive for the opener.
Josh Christopher and Keshad Johnson, who are both on a two-way deal, were inactive despite being healthy and available to play. They were the Heat’s only inactive players on Wednesday.
Dru Smith was the Heat’s lone two-way contract player who was on the active roster against the Magic.
Two-way contracts, which pay half the NBA rookie minimum and do not count toward the salary cap or luxury tax, allow for players to be on their NBA team’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games.
That two-way clock is shortened for the Heat because of its current roster situation, with only 14 players on standard contracts.
At the maximum 15 players on standard deals, the Heat would be allowed to have two-way contract players on the active list for 150 total games during the regular season (50-game limit per player).
But the Heat is currently only allowed to have two-way contract players on the active list for 90 total games during the regular season because it has fewer than 15 players on standard deals.
Making Christopher and Johnson inactive on Wednesday saves a few days. With only Smith active among the Heat’s three two-way contract players, that clock is now down to 89 games.
Despite the disappointing start to the season, it was still a memorable night for the Heat.
The Heat celebrated the start of Pat Riley’s 30th season by unveiling “Pat Riley Court at Kaseya Center” on Wednesday. Riley’s signature is inscribed to the left of the words “Pat Riley Court at Kaseya Center” on both sides of the court.
Halftime was extended for the ceremony to dedicate the Heat’s home court to Riley.
Among the former Heat players who were in attendance for Riley’s moment were Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, Alonzo Mourning, Goran Dragic, Glen Rice, Jamal Mashburn, Mike Miller and Norris Cole.
“This will forever be a reminder of what you mean to this team, this organization and this city,” Mourning said while speaking at the start of the halftime ceremony.
An emotional Riley then spent about 10 minutes thanking those who helped him along the way, with especially poignant comments about his wife Chris Riley and his journey on and off the basketball court.
Riley is just the second coach in NBA history to receive such an honor, joining Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics.
Riley, who turns 80 in March, has become one of the most successful figures in South Florida sports during his iconic tenure with the Heat after first joining the organization prior to the 1995-96 season. He spent 11 seasons as the Heat’s head coach and has served as the team president since he arrived.
During Riley’s first 29 seasons with the organization, the Heat compiled a 1,316-995 (.569) record for the best record in the Eastern Conference in that span and the second best in the NBA. During that time, the Heat also made 23 postseason appearances and captured 16 division titles (the most in the NBA during that span) while making seven trips to the NBA Finals and winning its first three NBA championships (2006, 2012 and 2013).
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 10:20 PM.
