1. This isn’t the same Orlando Magic group you may have grown used to over the past decade. Instead of a veteran team pushing for a low postseason seed, this is a young, talented group that has earned every bit of a Top Four spot with a blend of size, defense and interior aggression.
In the second quarter, they also ran into a buzzsaw.
It was a fairly non-descript start on both sides, Tyler Herro opening with 10 of the HEAT’s first 20 while Orlando punctured their defense for a few more basket cuts than anyone is comfortable with. The lead went back and forth a bit, both sides grinding out points with Orlando getting into the paint, Miami hitting jumpers – once again hitting a chunk of their early threes in a game Jimmy Butler misses, which is a real, statistically founded thing – and scoring off Magic turnovers. With 6:40 to play in the second quarter and Bam Adebayo in foul trouble, it was all knotted up at 36-36.
Miami wouldn’t miss a shot the rest of the half. We can talk all we want about smooth, crisp offensive execution, which was all present to be sure, but making 12 straight shots without your two best players on the floor against a Top 5 defense is as special as it gets. Making five triples during that stretch – 11-of-18 in the first half – Miami scored 32 points in six minutes and change as part of a 17-0 run that put them 18 going into the break. It doesn’t get much better than that stretch, one that will come up in conversation years from now.
As well as the HEAT were shooting, Orlando was just as poor. With Miami up 19 towards the end of the third, the HEAT had hit 20 of their 35 attempts outside of the paint while Orlando was just 9-of-30 in those same zones, including 4-of-22 from deep. Basketball is a simple game sometimes, make or miss, with most all else being equal.
Nothing much doing for the Magic from there as Miami rode that dominant second quarter run and cruised to the finish. You should almost always win when you shoot this much better than your opponent – 15-of-29 from three versus 9-of-36, with most makes coming late – but a logical result doesn’t make the process of getting there any less impressive. Miami takes this one, 115-106, with the Magic making a very, very late but very furious push to keep the score respectable. One of the better wins of the season goes on the ledger.
2. Herro (28 points on 17 shots, 4-of-5 from deep, eight rebounds, seven assists) was as good as it gets, punishing Orlando’s drop coverage over and over again with either quick pulls from three or by methodically eating up space in the middle and finding comfortable jumpers. It’s one thing for the HEAT to shoot this well as a team, another thing entirely for it to happen on the same night that Herro didn’t know how to miss a jumper. That’s a recipe for an Offensive Rating of 120+, and sure enough the HEAT finished at 121.6.
But where Herro will get the deserved accolades, the unsung hero of the night is Haywood Highsmith. While Orlando wasn’t exactly letting him shoot in the first half, he was clearly one of the designated players they were comfortable helping off of. To Highsmith’s credit, he shot early and often and didn’t stop any time he was open, making back-to-back triples during that magical second-quarter run, as he finished with 15 points on 4-of-9 from three (a career-high in attempts), the most impressive number there being the sheer number of attempts. There’s nothing more harmful to an offense than a shooter who won’t shoot when he’s open and Highsmith has been game this season no matter how his percentages have fluctuated. Add in some high-energy, timely offensive boards and his typically excellent one-on-one defense – you can make a pretty good argument that he’s Miami’s second-best isolation defender behind Adebyayo – and Highsmith continues to carve out a firm spot in the rotation whenever health has allowed.
3. The No. 1 pick in 2022, Paolo Banchero has lived up to his billing, putting up All-Star caliber numbers as he sets Orlando on the path towards something meaningful. He’s also just 21 years old, with plenty of learning to do.
Orlando has not been a very good shooting team this season so it’s likely Miami came in planning to take away the paint as much as possible – also likely considering that’s their base defensive philosophy in the first place. But with Orlando unable to convert much of anything from outside there was nothing at all preventing interior help against one of Orlando’s most potent downhill forces. Whenever Banchero put the ball on the floor, there was another body sliding over into his driving lanes and a third body waiting in the wings. The most elite offensive players in the league can read that secondary help, which is tougher than it sounds to do consistently, and find the shooters it leaves open, but Banchero was often stuck in between, shooting over multiple defenders on his way to a 2-of-12 night, plus three turnovers, with just one make in the paint by the time Orlando was down 20 in the final five minutes. It helps, too, when you have a defender of Highsmith’s caliber limiting those initial blow-bys so the help is coming to a place of strength rather than playing catch up on an attacker who has already beat his man. Banchero will get his reps in and improve against these coverages, but every young player has to endure scouting reports tailored to their strengths and their team’s weaknesses.