Orlando Magic Grades: Miami Heat 108, Orlando Magic 96

The Orlando Magic came out flat in the second half against the Miami Heat, and they will have to fix a few aspects of their game going forward.

VS.

	1	2	3	4	T
Heat	23	27	30	28	108
Magic	27	26	16	27	96

The Orlando Magic allowed the most points in the paint the franchise has ever allowed against the Miami Heat franchise.

Yes, a team that aimed to be built around elite interior defense allowed more points in the paint tonight than the franchise has ever allowed to a team that has featured Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning. That paints a bit of a picture of how rough this game was.

The team started off solid, moving the ball well and getting to the rim. But in the second half the team struggled mightily — scoring only 16 points in the third quarter on a paltry 5-for-20 shooting.

The perimeter defenders let too many guys get by and the help defense was slow. That led to too many easy buckets at the rim.

The offense looked solid, but had trouble finishing all shots, even layups. A positive about the offense was the 28 free throw attempts.

But overall it was not a pretty night for the Magic.

Serge Ibaka

F/C, Orlando Magic

Despite hitting an impressive 2 for 4 from three, he struggled inside the arc. And the Magic need more from him on shots he has been comfortable with in the past. Otherwise, he will likely fall back closer to the role he had with the Thunder.

Defensively, the Magic need and expect much more than he showed tonight. He was often late on rotations, and did not intimidate penetrators. He ended with only one block and did not force many alterations. He had by far the lowest plus/minus on the team with -18.

Ibaka is expected to be the leader of the Magic. He will need to put this performance behind him and come out ready to go on Friday.

Nikola Vucevic

C, Orlando Magic

He was a reliable player offensively, although his primary defender often just gave him those deep mid-range shots.

On defense, he did seem to do a better job helping with ball handlers, but he did not do enough to get the Miami bigs out of the paint. As a result, the Heat dominated inside and had many second chance points. Hassan Whiteside had a great game and Vucevic did not do much to stop that.

Vucevic though had the best plus/minus on the team, as the only player with a non-negative plus/minus (his was 0).

Elfrid Payton

PG, Orlando Magic

But he still showed a lot of the negatives from last season. He only shot 4 for 12 from the field. He let his defender get into the paint too often. Guys like Tyler Johnson and Dion Waiters were penetrating with little resistance, forcing the help, and finding the bigs in the paint for easy baskets.

Payton still needs to do a better job defending at the perimeter and finishing his shots, but he was a big reason the offense was working in the first half. He also had the second highest plus/minus on the team at -2. If he can continue to get to the line frequently, that will help a lot.

Miami Heat

1-0, 1st East

They need to do a better job of contesting shots and not allowing easy layup opportunities, but perhaps they were just not too worried about the Magic hitting shots and they will fix this against other teams. Hassan Whiteside was dominant with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Tyler Johnson came off the bench for 15 points. The Heat just dominated all the hustle stats and did more to win the game. Particularly in that tell-tale third quarter.

Overall, they impressed.