Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Heat fall to Magic in season opener
Heat struggle late, fall to Magic in road opener
Ten weeks later, the Miami Heat were back in Central Florida.
This time, in front of fans, outside of the Disney World quarantine bubble, with stakes decidedly lower than when they last took the court in a game that counted.
The lead protagonists remained the same for Erik
Spoelstra’s team, as did the result, with the Heat falling 113-107 Wednesday night to the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center, in their 2020-21 regular-season opener, one delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Two and a half months removed from their Oct. 11 Game 6 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, the Heat again played through the energy of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
This time, as then, it wasn’t enough.
Adebayo finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Butler closed with 19 points, seven assists and a careerhigh seven steals.
The Heat also got 20 points from Goran Dragic, 14 from Duncan Robinson, 13 from Tyler Herro, as well as an eightpoint contribution from rookie Precious Achiuwa.
As with so many of the Heat’s games against the Magic, it came down to a tight finish, with a dunk by Adebayo putting the Heat up 93-91 with 4:29 to play.
But five points by Evan Fournier later staked the Magic to a 101-98 lead with 2:46 to play, with a Markelle Fultz driving layup making it 103-98 with 1:45 to play. A Fournier 3-point play with 49.5 seconds to play effectively ended it.
Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday’s game:
1. Butler pesky: The sloppy play by both teams allowed Butler take advantage of his defensive aggression. He closed the first half with five steals, which tied Mario Chalmers’ record for a Heat season opener, and already was one off Butler’s career high.
Butler appeared to twist his right ankle in the second quarter, but played through to the end of the half.
Butler tied his career high for steals with one early in the third period, and then was called for a technical foul with 6:33 left in the third period, when he thought he was fouled while going for his seventh steal.
With 2:20 to play, Butler got that seventh steal, for a career high.
It was Butler’s first game action since Game 6 of the NBA Finals, given both of the Heat’s exhibitions off.
2. Adebayo’s shot: Adebayo converted a pair of mid-range jumpers as part of his 14-point, five-rebound, three-assist first half, an addition to his game that will further increase his versatility in directing the Heat offense from the elbow.
He later another mid-range shot to help tie it midway through the fourth quarter.
“He’s very good on both ends,” Magic center Nikola Vucevic said. “A great defender. Offensively, they run a lot of stuff through him, through handoffs, different plays. They’re very good using him kind of as a point guard.”
3. Dragic’s footing: Dragic quelled any doubts about his return from the torn plantar fascia in his left foot that limited him in the NBA Finals.
Playing in his now-familiar regular- season reserve role, the 34-year-old veteran closed the first half 4 of 4 from the field, joining Adebayo as the only other Heat player in double figures over the first two periods.
Dragic also helped get rookie Precious Achiuwa going, with an early alleyoop feed.
4. Harkless starts: The Heat rolled out a starting lineup that had not previously played together, with newcomer Moe Harkless opening at power forward, as he did in the two exhibitions, games that Butler sat out.
Rounding out the first five were Adebayo, Herro and Robinson.
That had Dragic back in the reserve role he played during the 2019-20 regular season, before he moved into the first five in the playoffs.
It was the first opening-night start for both Herro and Robinson.
Harkless started 48 games last season, which he split between the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks, with Wednesday the 325th start of his career.
Both Heat two-way players, Max Strus and Gabe Vincent, were inactive, with two-way players limited to 50 games.
Following off the bench, in order, were Dragic, Andre Iguodala, Kelly Olynyk, Achiuwa and Kendrick Nunn.
That had newcomer Avery Bradley and 2019 secondround pick KZ Okpala out of the mix.
5. Harsh reality: The Heat made it to the season’s starting line without a COVID-19 incident, which wasn’t the case for the Houston Rockets, whose Wednesday’s opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder was cancelled.
“There’s been a lot of planning, a lot discussion, a lot of hypotheticals that we’ve talking about the last couple of weeks,” Spoelstra said. “And I think every organization, you just have to expected [the unexpected], and you have to be prepared for a bunch of unpredictable things.”