Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Spoelstra’s Spoilers upset the Mystical Ones

Up in central Florida in the palace of the Mystical Ones without Jimmy Butler, the touring Miami Heat crushed its hosts with 15 3-pointers on 51.7% shooting and severed Orlando’s long-range attack. The strongest push came in interval two as Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Co. gorged the Magic’s defenses for 43 points on a dazing 16 of 22 tries.

“They came out and got after us early,” said coach Jamal Mosley postgame. “In that second quarter mainly, they hit a bunch of shots; we missed a ton that led to leak outs…”

Before the match, Orlando’s defense had held rivals to 47% of field goal attempts and 36.9% from deep.

Initially, the Magic logged eight of 13 attempts inside the arc in the first quarter on back door cuts plus pick and pop. Yet, for Miami, Herro unleashed the offense with a pair of triples and a left-side drive.

In the second quarter, he followed up with an unsoiled four attempts, getting into the lane for a floater, canning a tray on the break and swished two middies. Duncan Robinson contributed 10 points on three of four shots. And Haywood Highsmith supplied a dozen, too.

Defensively, the Heat contained the Magic’s 3-point shooting to two of eight makes in frame two, but in spurts it went to the zone, it was exposed on the offensive glass for a second chance.

Orlando’s Cole Anthony and Jonathan Isaac were Miami’s largest issues before intermission. The former blew by defenders for a baseline jumper, a top-of-the-key triple and three inside finishes. The latter recorded two layups, a dunk and a deep shot. Both combined for nine of 12 attempts through 24 minutes.

At halftime, Miami led 68-50, with 20 points in the paint, eight on the break, seven on second tries and six off turnovers. The visitors were behind on the glass by five, but the hosts turned the rock over five extra times, giving the Heat a handful of spare attempts.

In Herro’s second game back since busting his right ankle in November, he had 19 points with five assists and four rebounds. The rest of the club converted 19 of 37 ventures.

In the third quarter, the Heat locked up Paolo Banchero, forcing him to one of six makes on mainly shots outside of the lane while defended by Herro, Caleb Martin, Jaime Jaquez Jr, and doubled by Josh Richardson and Highsmith. Orlando still couldn’t buy anything from outside but used its size and speed to overwhelm the paint.

But in this period, Miami’s offense also stagnated to eight of 19 baskets, four turnovers and just four free throw attempts.

In the fourth quarter, the Heat coasted to a 23-point lead with five minutes left and were above 18 with three to go. But Orlando upped its RPMs, attacking the paint and offensive glass to cut the deficit to seven with 30 seconds left. Miami misfiring three jumpers, a freebie, and committing a late turnover didn’t help its cause, but it was too little too late for the Magic.

Miami won 115-106, escaping the new KIA Center with its ninth road victory of the season. Herro finished with 28 points on 59% shooting, seven dimes and eight rebounds. Adebayo had 18 on his scorecard with seven boards and two assists.

At the postgame presser, coach Erik Spoelstra said his group had a fruitful two days after reviewing the loss at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves. “We just went to work yesterday. [We] watched the film, watched some of the painful moments, watched some of the good moments and then got to work in practice and had a good productive morning.

“And there was a lot of respect for Orlando and what they’ve done early in the season. They [are] fourth in the East, [and] they have built a very good, disruptive defense and they’ve been great here at home. Our guys are well aware of that. We knew we’d have to play really well…”

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