The Miami Heat blew their chance for home-court advantage in the playoffs with a loss to the Orlando Magic Friday.
The Miami Heat had to have this game in order to have a chance at home court in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, but they couldn’t muster the win in a close game at the end of a back-to-back against the Orlando Magic Friday night.
The Heat (46-33) and Magic (34-45) played a close game throughout, with 23 lead changes. However, Orlando outscored Miami 33-29 in the fourth quarter to get the win. You can get the full box score here. Here are a few notes from the game:
1. The difference
The difference tonight was the free throws. Not necessarily how many times each team got to the line, but how they performed once there. The Heat attempted 21 free throws to Orlando’s 28, but made just 52.4 percent compared to 75 percent for the Magic. That. That right there was the difference in a three-point ball game.
Evan Fournier certainly got some calls tonight, and went 12-of-15 from the line, but he was aggressive attacking the rim and that’s often how things go when you play aggressive at home. Don’t blame the refs for this one. Fournier routinely got into the paint and was able to get up shots. That’s on Miami’s defense, not the officials.
2. Vucevic wins
Before the game I wrote that the matchup to watch was going to be Hassan Whiteside versus Nikola Vucevic. Well, Vucevic won the matchup Friday, outscoring Whiteside 29-to-13 and consistently beating him off the dribble when getting the ball at the elbow.
Whiteside seemed off tonight, and was pulled often by coach Erik Spoelstra for Udonis Haslem. Whether it was fatigue from playing two games in as many nights or the fact that Vucevic was able to draw him away from the rim, the Heat will need to identify what went wrong and fix it before future playoff opponents lock in on it.
3. Offense/defense
Joe Johnson drained a 3-point late to tie the game at 109, but he didn’t have a great fourth quarter. The Magic attacked him on defense and he was abused. Meanwhile, Justise Winslow played very good defense in the game but isn’t much of a factor on offense.
Spoelstra subbed Winslow in and out in the final seconds, but may be better served rotating between Winslow and Johnson more often in offense/defense situations.
4. What now?
With home court in the first round out the window, where does that leave the Heat? Well, the good news is that they are in the lead for the fifth seed, and could slide to sixth, and the difference between the third and sixth seed is, basically, one home game. If the Hawks get the third seed, you can expect a ton of Heat fans in that building, too. It could be worse.
The Heat will have to make a decision if they want to keep playing their core players or give them some rest in the final five days and three games of the regular season. The Heat won’t fall below the sixth spot, so I say rest guys like Wade, Whiteside and Dragic and make sure they are refreshed for the post-season.
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If Miami decides to do that, expect them to sign a pair of players for the rest of the season before their next game hosting the Magic on Sunday.