After a highly anticipated start of a redemption season for the Miami Heat, they were blitzed off their home floor in a blowout loss to the Orlando Magic 116-97. On a night where the legendary Pat Riley was honored in an unveiling of the new “Pat Riley court at Kaseya Center”, Miami disappointed and shrunk in the second half. The game was tight leading up to halftime, until the Magic blew it up with a 39-18 third quarter advantage.
The first half had some encouraging signs, including the play of the Heat’s backcourt of Terry Rozier and Tyler Herro. They played off each other well and provided the team with much needed offense to start the game. Rozier finished with a team-high 19 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Herro contributed 14 points on 50% shooting.
Early on, Nikola Jovic was a real bright spot and shined offensively to supplement the core four. He was spreading the floor and moved well without the basketball on cuts to the rim.
Unfortunately, the team’s top players in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo were nowhere to be found, delivering goose eggs on the box score. They combined for 12 points on 2/13 shooting and each sported a -30 when on the floor.
The irony of Butler’s performance specifically comes after an encouraging approach to training camp and preseason. He made it known that he was excited to come out and have a great year; a sense of being “locked in”. Ultimately, it is just game one of a long new season for the Heat star. But it is not a good look to put together arguably the worst performance of his career on a night where so much optimism was instilled into the team.
Miami seemed to get away from everything that they improved on offensively during the preseason. The spacing was shaky and the ball movement was painful. It seemed like everything was a grind during the second half; not ideal this early on in the year.
The defense was just as underwhelming, as the Magic’s Paolo Banchero tore the Heat apart. He finished with a game-high 33 points and 11 rebounds on 12/24 shooting. Franz Wagner also had his imprints on the game, totaling 23 points on 10/16 from the field.
Orlando had more size at every position and their physicality rattled Miami. Their length proved to be a problem on both ends of the floor with the Heat having no answers in the rebounding department, losing 57-41 on the glass. Orlando shot 43% compared to 39%, but attempted 14 more field goals.
The most deflating part of the night was the overall energy and activity from the Heat, starting with Butler. Nobody was connected, hustling or making winning plays in the second half when the game was blown open.
There is a long season ahead, but Miami will already face their first bounce back attempt Saturday in Charlotte against the Hornets.
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Bam and Jimmy looked lost out there and the Magic played very physical.
They grabbed, hold and pushed us around the whole night especially in the second half.
Wendell Cater would frequently push Niko in the back for offensive rebounds.
He also pushed off a lot to gain separation.
Their bigs would grab or hit our guards while they were trying to navigate around screens and knock them off course which gave their ball handlers more separation.
With the refs allowing a lot of pushing and grabbing the Magic took advantage and bullied us.
With the exception of Bam we didn’t have anyone with the size and strength to deal with their frontline.
They pushed us around and outhustled us for rebounds.
When Bam was guarding Banchero, Wedell Carter would push around whoever was guarding him.
When Spo switched Bam onto Carter then Banchero would abuse whoever was guarding him.
Banchero and Franz Wagner hunted weaker defenders all night and abused them. Which in turn led to double teams which led to plenty of open 3s for the Magic.
Didn’t help that we didn’t hit our 3s and our 2 best players didn’t show up offensively.
I was surprised that Jimmy wasn’t assigned the matchup with Paolo earlier in the third quarter. P.B. was overwhelming everyone else.
Paolo is too tall for Butler and Carter is too tall for Bam. Heat need a legit center. I wonder where they can find one?
wares too tall if he was 6 9 hed be playing
On the bright side, there was only about 20 minutes of terrible basketball, and only one game lost.
Some things are obvious:
-Bam and Butler cant play against lengthy defense, if the rim is packed.
-Thats why good distance shooting is so essential for the team. It opens the rim for those two to operate.
-Short teams can be good (look at Celts), but those needs to play fast and with the pace. I m not sure Heat have players for something like that.
-Rebounding was terrible, which is a question of effort and concentration.
So the solution is:
-better shooting
-better ball movement
-better rebounding.
Celtics were number 2 in rebounding in 2023-2024, second only to Warriors. Miami was tied for 25th.
Celtics were number 1 in 3 point shooting. Warriors were number 2. Miami was #19.
Pacers were #1 in assists. Warriors #4. Celtics #14. Heat #18.
Well, yes, I know, you are right.
The most annoying thing about Heat is, that the team is not really good in anything- We need improvement in every area. There is no a easy fix for that.
thats a gm doing his homework,good stats cool one .when bam is your best player youve got a problema,
https://twitter.com/WillManso/status/1849261178482053606?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1849261178482053606%7Ctwgr%5E59b601469c0e8537d76c9ecaf068abede8ca4cbc%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F10140690-jimmy-butler-heat-trolled-by-nba-fans-for-blowout-loss-vs-paolo-banchero-magic
Woof.
I didn’t watch last night, and I don’t like to over-react to anything that happens before Christmas. But when the Heat lost a bunch of important games at the end of the regular season, I think we all agreed that we were at the ‘end of an era” before the play-in loss to the Sixers or the playoff blowout against the Celtics.
I don’t think any of us wanted the Heat to ‘run it back’ this season. Some wanted to trade role players and draft picks for a third star, some wanted to trade Butler for young guys and draft picks and kick-off a rebuild. For whatever reason, Riley decided to run it back.
I’ll just say the same thing I said before the season started. This team is in a rebuild, and Jimmy Butler is the outlier. If they don’t trade him, they’ll make a run for a middle playoff seed and then use the cap space from his expiring contract. With that in mind, I don’t expect them to show up opening night and beat a playoff team. I’m just hoping Spo builds them into something by the All-Star break
first game end of the world scenarios. i fully understand the frustration coz we were all excited to start this season then THAT happened. if in the next 2 games Heat get embarrassed again…trade everyone lol
Including me, to the Washington Generals
I was interested in exploring trade possibilities for Butler since the February trading deadline. Because I don’t like or respect him? NO! As SM noted, you try to sell your assets when you can get the best return. That moment may well have passed. I even saw somewhere the excuse of Butler nursing some type of nagging foot injury. If so, he’ll now be seen as damaged goods. Not surprisingly, one of the biggest complainers about Butler in that game was the person adamantly against trading him.
Of course, as embarrassing as it was, it’s only one game. We’ll see what happens as we move forward. We all agree that we’d like to see Ware get some meaningful minutes, but let’s not forget that he is a 20 year old rookie. He will (and has) make mistakes.
I think Butler’s pace is of a bygone era, the slow down half-court game…not running with the antelopes.
Ware can’t do any worse than Butler did last night. The sooner he gets the minutes and the experience, the faster he’ll get to where we all want him to go. Either that or send him down to Sioux Falls where he (and our other young benchwarmers) can be fast tracked.
Adebayo: (Me) and Jimmy have to figure out how we can be aggressive in the new offense
For a while now we’ve heard about revamped offense, Bam shooting the three and the team playing faster with 5-out potential and less midrange in the diet. Looks like it’s here now but Bam and Jimmy still need to figure out what that means in the context of their games and their intuition in the moment of competition
I hope they figure it out sooner than later.
What an ugly 3rd qrtr.Most of the plays are all “high screen and rolls” and “dribble hand offs.” High Screen and Rolls are not very effective if you don’t use the roller, all the while no one else is moving. Just a bunch of set shot-bricks, after bricks, after bricks. No post plays, no back door cuts, off ball screens. Dribble Hand Offs and High Screen and Rolls.i also saw in the 3rd was Miami playing a 3-2 zone with bam on the wing and they repeatedly had someone cut into the paint for a wide open dunk. Spo caused a blowout with this one,yes Miami has been zoning the Magic for the last 2 years. Difference is no one can shoot before but a lot can shoot now. I counted atleast 6 times they had a cutter walk in for a easy paint bucket on a small player.Out of all the losing team, our offense is the only one who didnt hit the 100. Before,We mostly win when our defense makes a difference but that along with this offensive style is set up to this being a stressful regular season.
Sure we are going to win some games but when two of our stars don’t lock in and get involved aggressively then you cannot expect much since it also put pressure on the other guys. Bam and jimmy struggled against these big guys, couldn’t get easy shots or get freethrows. Can’t happen again. They’ll fix this and prob do fine with other teams but against bigger teams… get ready to pray 🙏.
Reset, play better next game. Go Heat
100% well said
Agreed. Excellent analysis!
Every time we finally cut or drove to or right outside the restricted area we never converted. Think I saw maybe one or two go in late in the 4th when it was garb time. Granted, didn’t watch the first half. But just ran into a packed crowd every time, Orlando is tall and really long man, we were getting jammed. Couple of times they were dropped and there was space in the lane by the mid post and I was praying somebody would pop a runner and keep them honest. Herro tried one but no good
The first half Herro looked really really really good. In control, moving at his own pace, trusting the pass, converting in the paint. Rozier and Jovic did as well in their own ways.
In the first what was 3 or 4 possessions out of half, Orlando took that double digit lead, we saw a lot of decent shots rim out. And it was good night Irene.
Bam Adebayo admits Heat’s loss was ’embarrassing’
Pat Riley has to make a choice. He either finds a way to add another star to the rotation, or he hits the reset button and begins to re-tool around Adebayo. Either of those options won’t make a big enough difference until next year. For now, the Heat must claw and fight to remain relevant. But, judging by their performance on Wednesday, that’s going to be a tough battle.
https://www.yardbarker.com/nba/articles/bam_adebayo_admits_heats_loss_was_embarrassing/s1_13132_41113291
I agree on the reset button after maybe fifteen games, if our record is 6-9 or worse. And, even more so if Jimmy isn’t making a big impact. Without outstanding play from Jimmy, it’s hard to envision this team going far.
Truth is, a reset is not so bad if you do it right and not out of desperation. You can be right back in it in a couple years.
Complicating the reset, at some point we are going to have to deal with the players that are untradable. And, hopefully we will be careful to avoid that scenario in the future.
Again, that’s after fifteen games. There is a small chance that our loss last night was not indicative of the quality of this team. But, there are reasons why that loss may be quite telling. One, Orlando is a middling team and beat us soundly on our court on an important night historically. Two, we shot and played, okay, not terrible, but had trouble finding shots as well as getting rebounds and also the opponent had far more open shots than us, particularly threes. And three, Jimmy showed no sign of being able to carry us. So, this loss could be concerning.
We did not shoot okay, didn’t we shoot less than 40% from the field?
Yes, but Jovic, Herro, Bryant, Highsmith, and Jaquez shot 22/44 = 50% fg%. Admittedly, that’s really looking hard for a silver lining.
They (and Rozier) weren’t the ones who let the team down. Jimmy, Bam and Duncan were. Spo had a bad night too. He waited too long to pull Jimmy out and his substitution scheme sucked. When players go cold, pull them out!!!
Preaching to the choir, brother!
Singing to the choir. Swing low sweet chariot…
The first half we shot okay, got a few easy transition baskets and also made some tough shots. And we still were behind a little at half time. Yes, the third quarter we fell apart.
I don’t think Orlando is middling. They’re going to be in the running for a top four seed this year if Paolo B. keeps playing like he did against us.
Not an excuse at all. It hurts losing to the jv squad, but they’re not jv anymore…
banchero is what we hope bam would become an offensive stud .bam is a very limited offensive player
Ehh Banchero was a wing ball dominant player in college. Bam wasn’t.
Bam also hasn’t shown have the ability to get lower than his defender consistently to take advantage of his strength and speed. It’s been a few years since we saw him do that.
Better loose now, learn early lessons and get better seeding going into the play off, than win game 1 , learn nothing and later play a deciding game to get out off the play in tournament.
Glad I didn’t watch this game, I was out playing basketball, and won 4 straight games. When I got home, I seen score, and decided not to watch because I had the game recorded. Honestly I wasn’t mad they got beat badly because they deserved it, running this same team back. Hopefully this lost will wake up bam and also Jimmy who looking old there. It’s only one game, but if Jimmy continues this poor play, he will definitely get traded at or before the trade deadline.
its not fair for jim and bam to see dunc shnozic bryant on ct they know those guys cant play theres better options spobot
If Butler and Bam play like that, they are the ones who should not be on the court. I’ll take the enthusiasm of the third stringers any day!!!
not worried about declining jimmy and bam worried about some dead weight on this team .ty and terry are average nba players jjj should be third option.rest of team blows,u got hungry youngens that can ball but spo will never play them,with the athleticism of the nba u cant have dunc jovic love bryants of the world getting pt.gary harris says thank u to dunc btw
Banchero and Wagner (33 & 23 Pts) ate Miami’s lunch and Wendall Carter killed Bam on the boards 14-5. Rozier played well and Jovic, Jaquez and Herro half-ass held their own. Butler looked like he got old overnight. 2 free throws and 1-8 shotting. He sure didn’t look like an NBA all-star or max player.
Terrible to watch but I’m not hitting the panic button. They better slaughter charlotte
Charlotte beat a much improved Houston team last night, in Houston…so there’s that.
i believe brandon miller might be out but lamelo was balling last night
new year older jimmy ill take a 1pt win
Well…safe to say that if they like they played in the 2nd half the rest of the season…they’ll lose every game. And also…guess what? They’ll all still get paid.
No need to worry yet. I’ll start if we lose to the Hornets 🙂
Most people wanted to trade Jimmy and retool. The good news is if they play like this it will happen, so don’t be so sad, guys. 😉
Well, you know, if he continue like this, its like Lavines untradable contract. Then opt in next season, UD role for another year and retirement. All that for 40 mill a year.
I am surprised LaVine has such a high untradability factor. I would like to have him on the Heat. With him, the only issue is the contract. I think two of our players are closer to untradable than LaVine.
When LaVine is healthy, he is very good. But, yes, that contract. Wouldn’t be so bad except for his injury history.
In business, the objective is to sell when the value of your product is high, not after the value drops through the floor. For now, it looks like Miami missed that boat.
At this point, Miami will need to wait until Butler regains his touch before being able to make an equitable trade. Under a worse case scenario, if he does not return to the “Playoff Jimmy” level, Miami will be forced trade him for “table scraps” before the trade deadline or wait until the end of the season and find a suitable “sign & trade” partner or let him walk without getting anything/anyone in return. Unfortunately, if he isn’t traded and isn’t playing up to his previous standards by the end of the season, there won’t be a market for him in the max range. In that case, he may very well decide to “opt in” for the last year of his contract in 2025-2026 @$52.4M .
In that scenario, any re-tooling/rebuilding by Miami would be delayed until 2026-2027, after Butler is gone. The only current Heat players signed through 2026-2027 are Bam, Herro (final year), Ware and Jaquez (final year).
Let’s hope Butler (and Bam) regain their productivity and Spo figures out the line-up. We can’t keep getting outrebounded by 17 (30 on the offensive boards). Second, third and fourth chance shots are killers! I, for one, would like to see Ware thrown into the fire sooner than later. God knows the team can use the inside defense and rebounding.
How much can it cost Miami to start Ware now? This team can’t possibly finish below three of the following teams (Detroit, Washington, Brooklyn, Chicago, Atlanta and Toronto). Therefore, does it really matter whether Miami finishes 7th or 10th, it would still be a play-in team and further along in the process of building for the future.
those second chance pts would not happen with ware in there.those layups will be swatted away by warewolf,hes much longer than bam.its a no brainer to start him with bam,its not like jovic is second coming of dirk.go to europe young man youd be an all start there
Jovic is not a legit starter. He may be some day…but not today! It looks like Cleveland or Lakers may grab Kuzma right under Riley’s nose. Oh well.
That was, lets say, the biggest kick in the ass I remember watching Heat in a long time.
Positives?
5 minutes of Rosier, Jovic and JJJ each.
The rest was a shit show.
I was worried about this. In basketball, with rotations of 8-9 players, everyone has hopes going into a season. In the other sports, where you need at least twenty, you know better about your chances year to year. And even when there are subtle differences in strengths of teams, it’s sometimes obfuscated by the fact that every nba player is somewhat good.
Having said that, I did see that Jimmy is likely not the same player anymore. That alone takes us down a notch. But, how can I say this nicely, we have a roster that does not look like the rest of the league. There is a reason for that and that is because it doesn’t work. It was ironic that Pat got honored on a night where he should be being shown the door.
Further, this site has become unpleasant because when stating realistic expectations of mediocrity, expectations that are not only reasonable but justified, they get attacked by Heat cheerleaders and apologists that are living in their own reality.
To them I say, one, you owe us who tried to logic with you an apology. And two, we owe you a big I told you so. We may be only be one game into this season, but that game could not have looked much worse for our prospects in 2024-25.
I may not post too frequently anymore. There are far worse things happening in the world and it’s hard to even enjoy sports anymore.
Don’t worry. You and HFL can have it and wallow together on HHH. No need to go.
And it’s not cheerleading. All it is is not soiling myself every year for every game. Anywho, cheers!
telling it like it is sorry i hurt your heat feelings
Fans will be fans. I m a optimist by the nature, so I will forget this game in a day or two and expect Heat to win the next one.
This team was mediocre past 4 year, but still somehow made it to PO every time, and played twice in finals.
You will get my apology and yes, you told me so after a while, if thing will be as bad as last night. I m not ready to do it after game 1.
There is probably too many optimists here for your taste, but I enjoy to read your post and understand your positions. They could be correct. Time will tell.
I like optimists too. I want to be one someday. Appreciate your comments too.
it always happens. on UD night Heat also lost miserably. they forgot to play in the second half. turd appeared they got sucker punched and did not recover. oh well…go heat….
I always watch Heat games on Dish DVR. That way I can fast forward though commercials and halftimes. I pick game up 1/2 hour to an hour after it starts. Tonight was one of those times the fast forward button came in real handy.
I could only handle about 3 quarters of slow death when I decided to fast forward it to the last minute. It was an absolutely horrible game. The team was not in sync and had a terrible time penetrating Orlando’s tight defense. The rebounding sucked! Both the offense and defense broke down completely after the half-time festivities. I don’t understand why Spo didn’t pull all the starters out after the turd quarter to give them time to think and also let the young guys get some valuable experience.
For starters, here are some keys team stats:
Heat outrebounded 57-41 (39-9 on offensive boards)
Steals 8-5 Orlando (Heat had been averaging 15 per game in preseason)
FG% 39%
3PT% 32.4%
These are my grades for the rotation players:
Rozier B+
Jaquez C+
Jovic C+
Herro C+
Bryant C
Highsmith C
Robinson D
Bam D+
Butler F-
Coaching Orlando A+ Heat D-
Miami has 3 days to get it’s shit together. Otherwise, this could turn into a very long season. On the bright side, after looking at the box scores so far, there may be a few teams interested in making trades. If all else fails, it’s never too late to re-tool or re-build.
GO HEAT!!!
I haven’t seen the game, thanks for your summary because I had many questions and you answered most of them.
I expected a tough game, because they are young, tall and physical team and that is usually a problem for us. But to be honest I did not expect losing this way. I am very disappointed. And I am baffled by Jimmy’s 3 points on 1/8 shooting. Our star with a max contract. And similar stats from Bam, our second star player.
I know it is just the first game, but we are in full strength and there is no improvement compared to the previous season. I hope they will improve game by game and that it is not what we will have to endure all season.
A poor first showing. I argued last season that every game counts. Some disagreed (at least one, the same one that told me I was wrong when I said Ware would not start on day 1 of the season). Just for reference, there is this from the SS Dave Hyde:
”Two more wins would’ve earned them the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, kept them from the play-in game where Jimmy Butler was hurt and avoided their having to play top seed Boston in a futile opening round.
Four more wins would’ve got them the second seed.“
Maybe the Heat need me back home – I’ll be there Saturday.