The Miami Heat let a double-digit second-half lead slip away in their 2025–26 NBA season opener, falling 125–121 to the Orlando Magic in a high-scoring affair on Wednesday night at the Amway Center..
The game was entertaining from the start, and Miami was on fire offensively — although they had to little to show for it by the end of the quarter when they allowed the home team to storm back into the game. Nikola Jovic had his moments early with a pair of long threes and some nifty passing, but it was Norman Powell who led the Heat in an impressive debut, pouring in 28 points and grabbing 9 rebounds while posting a team-best +12 in 32 minutes. He was efficient and aggressive, providing Miami with an offensive spark off the wing that was needed with Tyler Herro’s absence. Starting point guard Davion Mitchell was another bright spot for the Heat, posting 16 points and dishing out 12 assists.
Andrew Wiggins also had his moments, adding 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting. He chipped in 4 rebounds and finished with a 60.1% true shooting percentage, but more was needed down the stretch.
Despite the offensive output, Miami’s defense faltered late. The Magic imposed themselves, led by Paolo Banchero’s 24 points, outscoring the Heat 14–4 over the final four minutes, keyed by clutch play from Franz Wagner (24 pts, 4 reb, 6 asts) and Desmond Bane, who hit three 3-pointers en route to 23 points in his Orlando debut.
Bam Adebayo struggled with efficiency, finishing with just 15 points (4-13 FG) and 7 rebounds. There were some moments he displayed aggressiveness on offense, and his defense kept the Heat in the game even during a five-minute field-goal-less stretch in the fourth, but more often than not was smothered inside by Orlando’s bigger frontline down the stretch. Why Erik Spoelstra didn’t give more minutes to Kel’el Ware to counter this, especially with Wendlell Carter Jr. coming through with key clutch plays in the paint late in the game, was a curious one. Jovic’s impact on the game faded quickly and he was targeted on defense and ended the night with a -14 net rating in 22 minutes, with Spoelstra electing to go with an effective Jaime Jaquez Jr., who chipped in 13 points, for the lion’s share of minutes during the second half. Simone Fontecchio also scored 13 points on 6-8 shooting in his Heat debut.
What’s Next?
The Heat continue their road trip and face the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night at 8:00pm.
when u have a pf with 4 smalls thats a problem.team needs 2 more bigs.i hope ware was hurt the reason y top 15 didnt use him in 4th
That was a fun first game. I swore we were going to steal it away for a hot minute but nope. Too many turnovers and some silly shots in the 4th quarter.
Niko had a solid first half and then started pressing in the second half to the point of sloppiness, which was a great call by Spo to pull him for JJJ. Then he let JJJ ride out the hot streak and it paid off. Davion plays great and then it felt like he started pulling a Niko in the 4th and started pressing a bit. Niko comes in to give JJJ rest and has a bonehead play and Spo immediately pulls him out. I think Niko played like seconds in the 4th. I see people up in arms about Ware not playing, especially in that 4th, but I suspect he was not 100% as it was thought he would miss the game. So the question is should Spo have taken Davion out for Niko again with like 2 mins left? That makes the lineup bigger but it seems he leaned towards the guys who were overall playing hot in the second half, JJJ and Davion.
I can’t wait to get Kaspar back to see how he fits as he could have been a bigger bodied option late in the 4th over a pressing Davion.
On to Friday!
Spo lost this game by being stubborn , again, with not playing Ware in the final minutes and opting to go with Jaime. Jaime put in admirable shots, but the rebounding wasn’t there. I’ve followed the team for too long and this is classic Spoelstra…. Wait too long to put the appropriate guys in. Stevie Wonder could see we were getting killed by second chance points and only opted to put Ware in when the game was already lost. So frustrating! It makes you feel like the games are rigged sometimes. Quit f’n around, Spo…. Play the best guys that will win us the games. Ware is clearly the best potential out of all of them. Nico should be playing the 3, not the 4 and place him in a point forward role like he was born to do. Norm is awesome, glad he’s on our team. We really missed Tyler Herro tonight. Wiggins played well and was solid. That was a VERY winnable game that was blown by making some dumb coaching decisions in the end.
I don’t think Ware was supposed to even play with his ankle and neck issue. I was actually surprised when he went in. My guess is he wanted to play since it was opening night but Spo may have been protecting him a bit. It’s a long season. We’ll see how that plays out.
This is true, 2qbn… I did overlook the fact that he was injured. I think it’s a big mistake for our team not to procure more big guys. I just didn’t think the omission would show itself at the end of our first game of the season already.
With the Terry news I think we can expect a Precious resigning as the Heat will get some relief. I was trying to find a list of available bigs but it appears the Predator might be best available.
Man, we have suffered through some drama with certain basketball players. Hopefully, karma rights the ship for us. The choice is either Precious or Thomas Bryant. I choose Achiuwa. Better defender and he is mobile.
Agree on the mobility and prefer him for that reason. Can guard more players but Carter became a hog down there in the 4th. I’m not sure anyone was going to help. As HFL was saying, Goldin physically could match, but not a great spot to put him in with the game in the balance late in the 4th of what would be his first NBA action ever. I think we need to build him up a bit before we try a move like that, plus he has a games played cap.
A loss is always a loss, first and foremost, but I think there was more good than bad in this game. It was legitimately competitive for 47 minutes, and now we just gotta work on that 48th minute. And Orlando isn’t a bad team.
Keeping in mind that half of the players who saw the court last night have been in a Heat uniform for less than a year, and that our first round rookie plus arguably our second-best player were both injured, I’ll take a game like this. I’ve said it before: even if we don’t have one big star anymore, what we do have is a team that’s a lot deeper than folks give it credit for. If we can leverage that, we’ll see success.
I am trying to piece together the quitter trade to put it in perspective. If I leave something out, let me know.
Heat send Butler to GS for Wiggins, Anderson, PJ Tucker and first round pick.
Heat send Tucker, second round pick, and cash to Raptors for Mitchell.
Heat send Richardson and second round pick to Utah in salary dump/roster spot clearance.
Heat flip Anderson and Love to Clippers for Powell.
Soooo, Heat netted Wiggins, Kaspar, Mitchell, and Powell for Butler, Richardson, Tucker, Anderson, Love, 2 second round picks, and cash. That’s a pretty good day at the office.
For financial perspective, Butler is earning $54.1m this season. Wiggins, Powell, Mitchell, and Kaspar are earning $64.8m collectively this season.
very true norm wiggy getting up there in age.powells quite a player still diff level than wiggy.dav is a late bloomer shall we say.hes pg of future unless kaspar plays really well which is possible based on limited action,still think precious cut was not right move the way keshod looked he should have been cut.again we got zillion guys between 6 5-6 7.lack a backup for bam or ware.which cost us last night
I still think Precious will be back. He was cut rather than Keshad because his contract was not guaranteed while Keshad’s contract is. They didn’t have to forfeit any money with Precious.
the czar of contracts man im the dum dum of contracts
I enjoyed the game. Most of players had their moments, except Pelle, We lost at the end, but that happens teams without elite talent.
Bam was surprisingly good in my opinion, not bad, so it cant be his fault. We couldn’t rebound at the and, there were some turnovers, and no clear finisher. In other words, lack of talent.
There was also a visible gap between quality of players, from matchup Jovic/Wagner, or Banchero and all which played against him, both in offense and defense.
But those are top 30 players in the league, so thats not surprise.
Overall, there is no clear leader of the team, a lot of players will get the chance during game, and those playing the best will finish games.
I like that.
I was surprised that we started so well, going up by 12 points in the first quarter, shooting 5/6 from three point. The Magic were clearly taken by surprise. And the pace was crazy. But at the same moment I knew we can’t keep up this pace, intensity and shooting the whole game.
Overall it was not a bad game. Orlando is a good team. We missed Tyler, he would be the one we would rely on in the end and he can make those tough shots.
I was surprised that Spo played basically everybody that was available in this game and I liked that. We have a deep roster, let the guys fight for the available rotation spots.
I just hope they get another big soon, otherwise we are screwed if Bam or Ware gets injured.
I am glad this first game was a close one against a pretty good team, this gives us some hope. But at the same time it’s a pity we lost, it was a winnable game.
So this loss is on Bam and Spo. Who’s next opponent?
At least we’re the same with Bos, Cleve, Det lol
I’ll start with the positives. I loved Davion. Norm played like a hungry kid at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Pelé is a solid bench player, in the Struss/Duncan role. The lobs to Ware were nice.
Now the negatives. Bam looks like a lesser version of himself. Less hungry. Dru also looked a step slow. I love Jamie, but he looked overmatched.
Wiggins had some moments in the 4th quarter, but he looks like he me and my friends when we go to the park to play halfcourt and end up in a fullcourt game. He just looks tired out there. My dad agrees that he reminds us of Jamaal Mashburn. For you youngsters or new Heat fans out there, I can assure you that’s not a compliment.
Overall, I actually think they looked pretty good tonight, on the road against a playoff team. They played well enough to win, just didn’t have a scorer or a rebounder that could close out the game in clutch time.
Wow, I admit some confusion here. Jaquez 6-7, 13 points, 6 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals, and he is a negative? Pelle, 4 minutes, all zeros except for 2 fouls, and he’s a positive?
Just going eye test. Jamie was getting cooked by Franz Wagner. But he definitely hit some buckets. And Franz is a good player, even if he looks like Benson Boone. You could convince me to get back on the Jaquez bandwagon. But I’m not leading the charge
Say what? We must have been watching two different games. Pelle sucked big time. That’s why he got yanked. Jaquez played good enough to take Jovic’s starting spot.
looks like a lot of people saw something different than I did. I’m open. I’ll keep watching
SunMan is right.
okay. i hope you guys are right. I love Jamie. And his numbers looked good. I just didn’t see it tonight.
His name is Jaime not Jamie.
jaime played well wagner a tough cover hes bigger than jaime and very agile.prob bams the only guy who can guard him and jaime on paolo same thing.precious could cover those two,paolos a level above wagner.paolos prob a top 10 player.wags prob in the 20-30 category
how sweet the up and under on paolo.been waiting 9 years for bam to do that move.jaimes not a pf but because of pats construction of roster and spos implementation of personnel he was forced into it..theres one pf on team and hes a max player whos overpaid.
This should not have been a loss, but we’ve seen this movie before. The negatives were Pelle, too few minutes for Ware, and not enough from Jovic. However, I was very encouraged with other players. Powell and Mitchell were excellent. Jaquez looks ready for a bounce back season. Props to all the hard work he put in the offseason. Simone was a real pleasant surprise and played mostly reasonably well on defense. Wiggins was fine.
The Heat were competitive tonight. I’m curious to see if they can hold their own over the next couple of weeks. It was a fun game to watch except for the final score.
This is the assessment I most agree with. BTW, thanks to all our Heat sports columnists on this thread who gave their POV. You all are appreciated for your insights.
I wish we had something more. The one common denominator was that in crunch time, the Magic had the closest to a star who was going to get the needed basket in Banchero. And he’s no superstar and other teams are better than this pretty good team we played.
We also had the weakness we all feared that finally showed up at the end and did us in with a rebounding deficit. Nico just can’t fulfill his role yet in that area. Ware should have been in. I don’t understand so many things about the Spobot, but I don’t think he’s as great as everyone says.
And another over-reach is Nico, who is only slightly better, not a huge step up like predicted, as he still can’t penetrate or use his strength, although his three shooting is a nice asset. Sorry to say, but he’s a rotation guy, not a starter. Yes, it’s only one game, but I can still clearly see that they are forcing him in there inappropriately, maybe because they paid him, which was another mistake as he is surely overpaid even at his reasonable salary.
Still,,there is so much good, Mitchell helps even beyond his good stats. Powell is our best player at the position he plays although Bam would be if he played power forward. Wiggins is a solid vet, third scoring option. Bam and Ware will work out their chemistry eventually and will be very productive. That is a solid core.
If Ty gives us more offense we need without giving up too much defense, we could be quite competitive.
Better yet, trade Ty with Nico, and Pelle, bring back a solid two way wing, and we are competitive this year. I’m down on Nico and Pelle, don’t think they are players. I’m up on JJJ, and particularly Simone, as good rotation players. Add Dru, and Terry to that core and the guy we get back in the Ty trade and we are right there in the mix.
It also makes sense from a cap perspective. We are closer to competitive than last year and everyone should be a little excited.