MIAMI — Just when you think it can’t get any worse, the 2024-25 Miami Heat already, less than a third into their season, have shown a remarkable ability for it to get worse.
Entering Saturday night, Erik Spoelstra’s team already had crafted a litany of losses seemingly unrivaled for a team still, somehow, afloat at .500:
– There was the overtime loss in Detroit decided by Spoelstra calling the timeout his team did not have;
– There was the overtime loss (this is not a repeat) in Detroit when an eight-point lead was blown in the extra period;
– There were the losses to the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks when, off closing timeouts, the Heat were unable to even get off potential game-tying shots;
– There was the one-point loss to Sacramento Kings when Domantas Sabonis converted a putback jumper with seven-tenths of a second to play to close the scoring.
Each painful.
Each with its own sobering reality.
And then there was Saturday night in Orlando, when the Magic began the game with their top three players (Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs) sidelined, when the Heat’s lead crested at 25, when the advantage was 22 entering the fourth quarter.
And then … Magic 121, Heat 104.
The unfathomable proved fathomable.
“These,” Spoelstra said, “are tough lessons that we all have to learn.”
This teaching point, however, stands arguably as none other this season, arguably like few, if any, over the franchise’s 37 seasons.
As a matter of perspective, in the wake of Saturday night’s loss that extended the Heat’s losing streak to three heading into Monday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets at Kaseya Center, the Associated Press noted that NBA teams had stood 796-0 over the past five seasons when entering a fourth quarter up by 22 or more.
Saturday night’s score was 106-84 entering the fourth quarter.
Yes, the Heat were without Jimmy Butler, who remained behind with a stomach illness. But this season’s Heat already had shown an ability to lose even with the best of Butler, including last Monday’s loss in Detroit, when Butler closed with 35 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists in a game when a 112-104 lead was squandered in the final 2:52 of overtime.
But that, at least, was condensed misery. Saturday, the Heat were outscored 37-8 in the fourth quarter, shot 2 for 18 in the period, including 0 for 8 on 3-pointers, had just three points in the first 10:10 of the quarter.
“You can’t really explain that,” said Magic coach Jamahl Mosley, whose team not only was without its three leading men, but then lost backup center Mo Wagner to a knee injury less than two minutes into his first stint and then starting power forward Wendell Carter Jr. to an ejection in second period. All of that was with veteran scorer Gary Harris also out injured for Orlando.
And, still, the Magic found a way.
“That’s something I haven’t seen,” Mosley said of his team’s turnaround. “I have not seen that ever in my years in the league, the ability to stay with it despite all of the circumstances that started in the beginning of the game.”
The Heat could explain, though, just as they have along the road to this 13-13 record that has included highlight victories over the Cavaliers, Mavericks, Suns and Lakers, but also the incomprehensible such as Saturday night.
“I feel like we relaxed because we were up,” center Bam Adebayo said. “I feel like that’s the karma of the game. You relax, and then you let a guy get hot, and then it goes the other way and you’re trying to fight back.”
The player who got hot Saturday was Magic guard Cole Anthony, who scored 13 of his season-high 35 points in the decisive fourth quarter, with 27 of his points in the second half. Prior to Saturday night, Anthony had scored 11 points in his previous three appearances.
By contrast, Heat guard Tyler Herro, who has put his name into contention for his first All-Star berth, was scoreless in the fourth quarter, 0 for 5 from the field in the period.
“I think a lot of that is on me,” Hero said. “It is my responsibility to take care of it going down the stretch, making the right plays for us to win. So I will be better.
“Just being able to close out games and that is a lot of my responsibility with Jimmy not here. I will be better on Monday and going forward.”
And, so, a boxscore that made as little sense as the game for the Heat, including Adebayo closing -35, largely in part due to being the lone Heat player to go all 12 minutes in the fourth.
“They stepped up their defense. They got stops,” Spoelstra said of a Magic defense stout even in the absence of stars. “That’s what they do. We started to try to self-will a little bit versus that pressure, that led to turnovers. And then when we did get open looks, we weren’t in a rhythm and you’re feeling a little bit of the momentum shift.”
More than just a bit.
“These are tough, tough-ass lessons to complete a game,” Spoelstra said. “This is the modern NBA right now, right? A twenty-point lead is not what it was a decade ago. And you have to finish all the way through.”
So, again, all-to-familiar teaching points.
“We all had our fingerprints in this loss, in that fourth quarter,” Spoeltra said, “including myself.”
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