The Miami Heat’s season opener against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday was marred by a rough second half from a scoring standpoint. The Heat scored just 18 points in the third quarter and 43 across the final 24 minutes of action.
But Orlando’s defense deserves a lot of credit for the Heat’s unproductive offensive stretch. After all, the Magic totaled eight steals and eight blocks as a team and held Miami to just 39.0 percent shooting from the field for the game.
After the game, Magic star forward Paolo Banchero said that he enjoyed seeing his team muddy up the game up for Miami’s offense.
Paolo Banchero said “it was fun” causing the havoc defensively they did vs. Miami. “I’ve never personally played for a team where we can actually do that. You play on team and wanna get stops, I don’t know how many in a row we got — but it was ridiculous”
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— Fawzan Amer (@FAmer__) October 24, 2024
Orlando has one of the better defensive backcourts in the NBA in Jalen Suggs and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and they combined for two steals and two blocked shots on Wednesday. Suggs has spent the entirety of his NBA career in Orlando and is in his fourth season with the team, while Caldwell-Pope signed a three-year, $66 million deal with the Magic a few months ago.
Jonathan Isaac made a major defensive impact as well for the Magic, considering he totaled two blocks and one steal in under 15 minutes off the pine.
Orlando’s defensive prowess against Miami resulted in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo being non-factors from a scoring perspective. They mustered just 12 points between the two of them on 2-of-13 combined shooting from the field and 0-of-4 from 3-point range.
Interestingly, arguably Miami’s two best players were the only members of the Heat’s starting five who did not finish with double digits in points. Terry Rozier led the way with 19 points, though he buried just five of his 15 field-goal attempts.
While Adebayo and Butler certainly didn’t play at the top of their games against Orlando, they can make up for their lackluster performances when Miami plays its next regular-season game against the Charlotte Hornets on Oct. 26. The Hornets picked up a win in their season opener versus Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr. and the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
