Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat’s road in Emirates Cup play finishes in Orlando loss

They just can’t beat those guys. 

The Heat are only going home with $53,093 earned by losing to the Magic in Orlando in the knockout round of the Emirates Cup play. It’s the third time they’ve come up short against their pin-striped killers, and this time, the bench was dead weight, and they blanked too many open threes. 

The Magic set up a date with the winner of the Knicks-Raptors matchup and will at least make double the loot in the semifinals. 

The first quarter took 45 minutes, but the Heat held a 30-17 lead after their first seven made shots, including bursts from Tyler Herro and Norman Powell. The Magic also had seven turnovers and were held to scraps in the lane, but they were hungrier, much less going to allow themselves to get sacked.

Yet, of course, the Magic caught up a few minutes into the second quarter then took a brief lead in the latter stage as the Heat couldn’t stop them from getting to the body. It was like a fighter who unlocked the sweet spot and had their opponent stumbling over while getting whacked senseless. The hosts also sank five extra 3-pointers, which helped slow down the Heat by forcing them to check the ball more. 

Since the Heat is a collection of B-tier players, it took them until the end of the half to compose themselves. The visitors went to intermission ahead 57-56, and their bench was offset by Orlando’s.

Herro, Powell, and Adebayo’s long and short range baskets could only do so much because their rivals were the bigger and more athletic team. The Heat even went 19 minutes without a fastbreak basket courtesy of Orlando’s pressure. On top of that, the Magic figured out the zone, going into the fourth quarter ahead by six.

The Heat followed up, missing open looks while Desmond Bane’s rampage carried on. Coach Erik Spooestra was caught by the broadcast cameras, telling his crew that they weren’t giving a hard enough effort to get to Las Vegas for the next round but they weren’t able to stop the bleeding, even with the starters staying in until the last seconds.

They lost 117-108. Bane had 37 digits for the third time since Nov. 28, which included 15 in the fourth quarter. Additionally, the Heat’s transition attack was derailed to the 14th percentile at 88.2 points per 100 plays.

Spoelstra said after, “They had a huge second quarter… We’ve been struggling with this concept recently. If we’re not making shots, we are not getting stops.”