The Magic came out flat, lacked energy and showed no effort on defense. The Heat, on the other hand, came out with a lot of energy and shot the ball very well. That’s a recipe for a blowout and that’s exactly what happened. The Heat dominated the game from start to finish and came away with their second consecutive win over the Magic, 104-86. Dwayne Wade led the Heat with 25 points and 7 rebounds.
The Heat came out with a lot of energy as soon as the game started. Dwight Howard was very active early on and altered some shots as he usually does, but it wasn’t enough. The Heat went 14-of-24 from the field and held the Magic to just 7-of-15 of shooting. The Heat absolutely dominated the glass. They had as many offensive rebounds as the Magic had total rebounds (5). Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy said that if the Magic kept playing the way they were, they were going to “get their ass kicked.”
He was right.
After an even second quarter, Miami extended their lead in the third quarter and never looked back.
A late Magic run by the second unit made the game look a lot closer than it really was.
Dwight Howard came out with energy and put up some pretty solid numbers. Unfortunately, he was the only one. He was 6-of-9 from the field and scored 17 points. He also had 14 rebounds, blocked 2 shots and altered several others. Howard did provide one positive highlight for the Magic when he blocked Dwayne Wade’s shot on a baseline drive and the two superstars laughed about it after the play. Wade would later one-up Howard.
Vince Carter had a brief stretch in the third quarter where he was aggressive and got some easy baskets, but for the most part, he did not have a good game. In fact, it was probably his worst game in a Magic uniform.
Mickael Pietrus was hot in the first half, hitting five of his six shots, but he played just 17 minutes.
One day after having his best shooting night of the season, Matt Barnes had a night to forget. He was 0-of-8 from the field, did not score and picked up 4 fouls.
It easy to see why the Magic were never really in this game.
The Magic were playing the second game of a back to back and it showed.
The Magic played no defense, had no energy, and shot the 3-pointer very poorly.
Dwayne Wade was excellent. He shot 10-of-17 from the field, scored 25 points and dished out 7 assists. He also had 3 blocked shots, including one block when he ran down J.J. Redick and slammed his layup attempt into the backboard on a fast break.
The Heat finally gave Wade some help. Their bench scored 33 points and they had four players in double figures. Michael Beasley had 22 points and 8 rebounds.
Orlando shot just 34-of-78 from the field, 9-of-28 from beyond the arc and 9-of-17 from the free throw line. Their effective field goal percentage was 49.3% while Miami’s was 56.2%. The Heat shot 42-of-81 from the field, 7-of-14 from downtown and 13-of-19 from the free throw line.
The Magic turned the ball over 11 times and assisted on just 12 of their field goals. The Heat protected the ball incredibly well and their assist-to-turnover ratio was 25-to-5. The Magic did not get enough penetration and had no one outside of reserve Point Guard Anthony Johnson, who had 5 of Orlando’s 12 assists, really make an effort to get others involved.
Orlando closed the rebounding gap as the game went on, but the Heat dominated the glass in the early going and that helped them get off to such a great start.
Game Notes:
- Both teams were coming off home wins against Toronto and both teams will host the Portland Trail Blazers this weekend (Orlando on Saturday, Miami on Sunday).
- Dwayne Wade was +30 for tonight.
- Vince Carter, who played perhaps his worst game with the Magic, was -32.
- Carlos Arroyo didn’t shoot much, but he did a nice job of getting the ball to open teammates, finishing with 7 assists.
- Orlando had four players in double figures, but those four combined for just 52 points (13 points per player).
Final Thought: A day after playing a complete, solid game, Orlando played their worst game of the season. It was a bad loss, but don’t take too much out of it. Every team has nights like this and the Magic were playing for the second night in a row.
Next Up: The Magic will get a much needed day off Friday before hosting the Blazers on Saturday night.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)