Magic snap Heat’s winning streak with close win

MIAMI — The Magic have the Heat’s number this season.

Five times, the in-state rivals have faced off this year. All five times, the Magic picked up the win. Saturday was no different, as Orlando (38-28) took down Miami (38-30) 121-117 at the Kaseya Center in Miami despite a late comeback attempt form the home team. The loss snapped the Heat’s seven-game winning streak.

“We’re not looking for the moral victories, but we can’t get it twisted,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “For us, what sets the tone for games, we have to be mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually ready to defend. I love that our guys feel great about our offense. You want to have that confidence, but you’re going to have games like this where you’re just not going to be able to put 150 on the board. And whichever team can really set the tenor and tone of a game defensively probably has the best chance of controlling the game. And for large parts of the game, they controlled the game.”

Orlando controlled the game from the first quarter until the final few minutes. The Magic got off to a quick start, taking a 14-5 lead in the game’s first four minutes. Orlando rolled through the first quarter, shooting 70 percent from the field en route to a 41-27 lead after 12 minutes.

The story was the same through the second quarter, as Jalen Suggs and ex-Miami guard Jamal Cain finished the half with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Although Miami went on a short 12-2 run late in the second quarter, Orlando got back into a groove before the half ended and went into the locker room up 71-55.

The Heat had one of their best runs of the night late in the third quarter, shrinking the deficit to fewer than 10 points for the first time since the first quarter. But Miami had dug itself into too deep of a hole to climb all the way out.

The Heat made a desperate comeback attempt in the final minutes of the game, turning the blowout into a nail-biter. Miami was called for a controversial five-second violation, and then Orlando called a timeout after the Heat thought the Magic had also committed a five-second violation.

“I thought the five-second violation was B.S.” Miami’s Norman Powell said. “I mean, it was too fast. We couldn’t even get through our first two options before he called a five-second violation. And then, late in game, when we got them trying to get the ball in, they allowed them to call timeout when it’s clearly longer than what our five-second call was.”

Guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. hit two free throws with 18.5 seconds remaining in the game to cut Miami’s deficit to two points — its smallest deficit since the first quarter. Orlando’s Wendell Carter Jr. knocked down two free throws to extend the Magic’s lead to four, and the Heat could not make up the difference in the final 11 seconds.

Norman Powell landed a dunk with 8.5 seconds left to cut the deficit back to two. But two more free throws — these from Paolo Banchero — ended the Heat’s shot at the win.

“We can’t put ourselves in that hole, though — especially against good teams like that, playoff teams,” guard Tyler Herro said. “The fact that we cut it to what we got into showed our fight stuck with it, but we can’t put ourselves in the hole.”

Five degrees of Heat from Saturday’s game:

1. Streak snapped: Miami’s seven-game winning streak has helped its playoff chances as it fights to avoid the play-in round. But against a conference rival, the Heat came up just short.

With the loss, Miami is now in seventh place in the conference.

2. Heat health: Miami had Herro and Powell return to the lineup on Saturday night after missing time with injuries. Additionally, Jaquez played through some hip soreness he suffered pre-game.

Herro finished the night with 10 points on 4 of 14 shooting. Powell got off to a slow start but ended the game with 18 points on 6 of 14 shooting.

“(Powell will) be fine as long as we’re responsible about it,” Spoelstra said. “Look, these are not easy decisions right now. He’s going to play a lot of minutes. Tyler’s going to play a lot of minutes. Right now, we just need to focus on winning games and pouring into the team right now. We want to be healthy, we want our guys out there, we want our firepower, we want our options. With that comes some level of sacrifice and what we’ll do each game, I don’t know. At this point, the reward is just we’re doing whatever we feel is necessary to put ourselves in a position to win.”

Guard Dru Smith, who was previously listed as probable with a right hip contusion before being upgraded to available, did not play.

3. Early shooting stars: Orlando was lights out from the field to start the game. The Magic completed the first half with a 60.9 shooting percentage.

Orlando cooled off as the game went on, finishing with a 49.4 shooting percentage. But by the late stages of the game, the Magic had built up enough of a lead to withstand those misses. Paolo Banchero led the way for Orlando with 27 points.

4. Strong Jaquez game: Despite dealing with a hip issue that flared up pre-game, Jaquez paced the Heat with 22 points. His two free throws with 18.5 seconds left made it a two-point game.

5. Out-boarded: Orlando dominated Miami on the glass on Saturday.

The Magic had 48 rebounds to the Heat’s 32.