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Magic vs. Heat: Postgame Report

Josh Cohen
Digital News Manager

By John Denton
Oct. 26, 2016

ORLANDO – Forced to play without one of their key defensive cogs on Wednesday and still trying to form the cohesion and chemistry needed to reach their potential, the Orlando Magic knew they would be very much a work in progress early in the season.

But what happened in Wednesday’s season-opener – repeatedly allowing a starless Miami Heat squad to parade to the rim for dunks and layups – let the deflated Magic know that there is plenty of work to do before there can be progress.

A night bursting with promise and excitement over the addition of the Magic’s new head coach and its revamped roster devolved in the second half when they allowed Miami to drive the ball right at them for a bevy of baskets.

Orlando looked good for a half, but it came unglued in an unsightly, game-turning third quarter and ultimately collapsed under an avalanche of points in the paint in a humbling 108-96 loss to the rival Heat.

The Magic (0-1) came into the game knowing that it had to stop penetration against Miami (1-0) if they were going to stop a six-game losing streak to their rivals and start the season with a bang. However, a Heat team no longer possessing all-stars Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh still gashed Orlando for a staggering 74 points in the paint.

``It’s not OK and it’s unacceptable,’’ said Magic small forward Aaron Gordon, who had 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 35 minutes. ``Something that we need to do, man-to-man, is guard our own player better and understand what we want out of our defensive coverages.’’

A boisterous crowd of 19,298 – 13 shy of the most ever at the Amway Center – came to see the progress made by a Magic team that added head coach Frank Vogel, Serge Ibaka, Bismack Biyombo, Jeff Green and D.J. Augustin in the offseason, but they left with few firm answers because of struggles on both ends of the floor. Orlando led 53-50 at the half, only to see that advantage disappear in the third period because of offensive sluggishness and Miami dunks. Whatever hope the Magic had of winning their opener was washed away in a 30-16 third-quarter thumping by the Heat.

``They picked up their intensity and we didn’t execute,’’ Vogel said. ``They were riding us over our screens and we weren’t getting guys open and that forced us into one-on-one play which leads to low-efficiency offense.’’

Slow starters after halftime on several occasions in the preseason, the Magic made just five of 20 shots and turned the ball over three times in the third quarter alone. Miami kicked its offense in gear to blow out to a 13-point lead that would eventually swell to as much as 19 later in the second half.

Nikola Vucevic (17 points and 14 rebounds) and Evan Fournier (20 points, four assists and two 3-pointers), two of the holdovers from last season’s team, seemed appalled after the game at the lack of aggression that the Magic showed in the one-side third quarter.

``I just think we played a little selfish in the third quarter, we took a lot of bad shots and we just kept going at (Miami center Hassan) Whiteside and he kept blocking shots,’’ Vucevic said. ``We talked about it in shootaround and said don’t go at him, jump stop and make the extra pass and we didn’t do that. He kept blocking it, they kept getting easy fastbreak points and we never got back into it.’’

Added Fournier: ``One of the keys to the game was to contain the ball and they had drives on drive on drives to pocket passes, open threes and layups. That cost us a lot, cost us the game.’’

Orlando knew that there would be growing pains and chemistry concerns early in the season after adding nine new faces to the roster following a busy offseason. Still, with Vogel’s long history of success and the injection of talent and experience, the Magic felt they had more than enough talent to still play well even as the players were learning to mesh together. No such luck on Wednesday as Orlando made just 38.6 percent of its shots and it allowed the Heat to connect on 48.5 percent of their tries.

Sure, it’s early for a team with so much newness in key spots, but the Magic simply must play better while the chemistry comes together, Vucevic said pointedly.

``(Chemistry issues) is part of it, but we can’t use that as an excuse,’’ said Vucevic, who made seven of 14 shots. ``We have to figure it out fast. We have a tough schedule in front of us and if we dig ourselves a hole it’s going to be tough (to make the playoffs). Part of (Wednesday’s struggles) were because of (a lack of communication), but mostly we didn’t play the right way when we needed to in the second half.’’

The Heat beat the Magic for a seventh consecutive time, a skid that Orlando hoped to reverse, but one that is still active and dating back to December of 2014. Miami’s Whiteside dominated on both ends while compiling 18 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots. Goran Dragic scored 16 points, while reserve guard Tyler Johnson added 13 points and six rebounds.

Ibaka, who was acquired in a draft-night trade with Oklahoma City, scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds, but he connected on just six of 17 shots.

Elfrid Payton (14 points, eight free throw makes) and Gordon (two 3-pointers) were solid, but the Magic got little production off a bench that was missing Biyombo because of a suspension.

Biyombo, the free agent signed in July to be an enforcer at the rim for the Magic, was forced to serve a one-game suspension carried over from last spring’s playoffs. Formerly with the Toronto Raptors, Biyombo was hit with a fourth Flagrant I foul in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, requiring that he be suspended a game. He tried appealing the suspension, but it was upheld by the NBA, forcing Orlando to play without their defensive stalwart in the opener.

Prior to the tipoff, the Magic held an emotion-filled ceremony where a multi-colored No. 49 banner was hung in the rafters to honor the 49 people killed in the Pulse Nightclub shootings on June 12. A video was shown on the Amway Center JumboTron of the tragic events from that night and the community’s inspiring response in the days following mass shootings. The Magic also made sure to honor that night’s brave first responders, referring to them as ``Hometown Heroes’’ for their work in preventing further loss of life.

Magic CEO Alex Martins, who was appointed as the head of the board of directors for the OneOrlando Fund that raised $29.5 million for the victims’ families and survivors, said it is important for the Magic to remember and honor those lost.

``It will symbolize that we will never forget,’’ Martins said of the banner that will hang in the Amway Center. ``This was an event that shook our community and shook our country – we’re talking about the largest mass shooting in the history of our country. So it shook our community, but it also brought our community together. I think tonight will be symbolic of how our community has come together since then and how it continues to remember those who were the most impacted.’’

Orlando will be back on the practice court on Thursday before departing for a difficult back-to-back set of games on Friday and Saturday. The Magic will face former Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, forward Tobias Harris and the Pistons in suburban Detroit on Friday. Then, a night later in an extraordinarily tall task, they get the defending champions and LeBron James in Cleveland.

Orlando saw a three-point halftime edge disappear in the ugly third period. The Magic missed their first four shots of the third quarter and lost the lead – one they would not get back the rest of the night. Miami was easily the more aggressive team all throughout the third quarter and by the end of the period, Orlando found itself in an 80-69 hole.

``They started to play harder and Coach (Vogel) told us that at halftime, but we weren’t ready,’’ said Fournier, who struggled all night offensively and made just seven of 19 shots. ``They started playing more physical, they started fouling a little bit and getting into our stuff. That changed the momentum. We played kind of passive on both ends of the floor. We didn’t play hard on defense and we were passive offensively. It’s always kind of connected.’’

The Magic held a 53-50 lead at halftime – something that was quite of an accomplishment considering that they made just 39.1 percent of their shots and had trouble slowing the Heat’s drives.

As a harbinger for what was to come in the second half, the Magic got shredded in the paint early on. Miami opened the game by getting in the lane for 24 of its first 27 points and 36 of 43 in the first half.

Vogel said despite the poor finish to the night there are still plenty of positives to build on. He knows that building a winner out of a team with so much unfamiliarity will take time, but he is eager for the team to speed up that process with more focus, better execution and an improved attention to detail. That message was relayed following Wednesday’s loss and it will be rammed home again in a film session on Thursday.

``We’ll coach the truth in film (on Thursday) and in practice,’’ Vogel said pointedly. ``What we did well, we’ll highlight. What we didn’t, we’ll work on. We’ll do that every game all year regardless of the result. Win by 30, lose by 30, win by one or lose by one – you go in and look at your habits, highlight your positives and build confidence from that. And you look at your negatives.’’

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors.