For their first three-game losing streak since November, Heat loses to Magic in Orlando. Key points and information.
There are five things to remember from the Miami Heat’s Sunday night 105-87 loss at Kia Centre against the Orlando Magic (23-20). Following their brief one-game journey upstate, the Heat (24-19) will now make their way back home to start a brief two-game homestand against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. The Heat have now dropped three straight games for the first time since late November as the offence continues to struggle. The Heat’s offence went from mediocre to terrible in January, coming into the league with the 16th-best offensive rating (which was behind the NBA’s third-best three-point %).
The Heat had the 28th-best offensive rating in the league going into Sunday. Against the Magic, the Heat’s offence maintained its current trend, scoring a season-low 87 points on a season-worst 37.5 percent shooting from the field. In the defeat, Miami only made 12 of 37 (32.4%) three-pointers. The Magic, who had the fifth-best defensive rating in the NBA going into the game, took advantage of 18 turnovers by the Heat to score 29 points. As a result, the Heat finished with their third-worst offensive rating in a single game this season, scoring 95.6 points per 100 possessions in the defeat.
The offence, according to Heat guard Tyler Herro, “looks bad, feels bad.” However, we will overcome it. We consistently do. For the fourth time in the previous six games, the Heat failed to score 100 points on Sunday. Erik Spoelstra, the coach of the Heat, stated, “We were trending in a better direction in December.” “We’ve just had a difficult offensive stretch over the past few games.”
The Heat’s offence had an exceptionally poor start on Sunday, going down 7 of 30 (23.3%) from the field at the start of the game. The Heat struggled to get going early in the game, going 2 of 11 (18.2 percent) at the rim and 4 of 18 (22.2 percent) from beyond the three-point line to trail by as many as nine points at one point. Despite a difficult offensive start, the Heat eventually settled into a rhythm late in the second quarter, making seven of their final ten shots of the half to go into halftime shooting 35 percent from the field and trailed by just two points. It was advantageous that the Magic’s offence struggled as well,
In the first half, the team was 6 of 11 (54.5 percent) from the foul line and 16 of 25 (25 percent) on threes.
However, the third quarter saw no continuation of that progress. Two minutes into the game, the Heat matched the score at 52. However, the Magic went on a 29-13 run to take the lead and led by 16 points at the half. They led by 12 points going into the fourth quarter. The Magic capitalised on the Heat’s seven turnovers in the third quarter, scoring 13 points as a result. From there, things for the Heat only got worse. The Magic extended their lead in the fourth quarter, winning by as many as 20 points, and easily won by a wide margin.
Orlando deserves a great deal of praise, Spoelstra stated. “They behaved really aggressively tonight. They disrupted several of our routine relief efforts and somewhat disrupted our mobility, and we failed to respond forcefully and precisely. For the Heat, Bam Adebayo finished with a team-high 22 points on 8 of 17 field goal shooting, along with 11 rebounds and seven assists. Jimmy Butler contributed four rebounds, two assists, and 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field. Herro finished with 12 points on 4 of 14 field goal attempts, 4 of 11 three-point attempts, 1 rebound, and 2 assists.
Adebayo remarked, “I feel like we just get stagnant.” We have players returning, players coming and going from the team, and I’m not sure how many different lineups we’ve had. The most important thing for us, though, is that we currently need to work hard to get out of this difficult situation. Paolo Banchero led the Magic with a game-high 20 points and a team-high ten rebounds. Every player in Orlando’s starting lineup finished with ten or more points. For the second straight game, veteran point guard Kyle Lowry started from the bench as Spoelstra experiments with different lineups.
Be the first to comment