Miami Heat with the bounce back win over the Orlando Magic, 107-89

The combination of Josh Richardson and Wayne Ellington proved too much for the Orlando Magic as they racked up 38 points for the Miami Heat.

Hassan Whiteside returned for the Miami Heat on Tuesday night, after missing 11 games due to a bruised knee. His impact however was underwhelming, as head coach Erik Spoelstra is limiting his minutes, leaving him with just seven points for the night. Even so, his post presence was dearly missed, and he had a productive game defensively, racking up eight rebounds.

Instead, it was Wayne Ellington with the hot hand once again, scoring 18 points off the bench as he is consistently improving his game all around. His specialty, of course, being the 3-pointer, averaging an insane 83.5 percent from wings. Once he gets going off the dribble, he is close to unstoppable and that’s bad news for Heat opponents anywhere. In this case, severely stunning the Orlando Magic, as the Heat walked away with a 107-89 win.

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Josh Richardson was the highest scorer on Tuesday though with 20 points, getting extremely comfortable in that starter role.

Both Bam Adebayo and Tyler Johnson showed major improvements as well, with their hustles being off the charts since making that switch to the starting lineup.

With Whiteside back, Adebayo had to take a small step back, but statistically his improvement has been nothing short of spectacular. As for Johnson, he has been averaging 16 points over the last four games, shooting 51 percent from the field. While the eventual adjustment back to the bench might affect them both, their consistency so far must be recognized.

After trailing 49-43 at the half, Miami came out strong in the third quarter, resulting in a 25-19 run. They followed that with a 39-point performance in the fourth, outscoring the Magic by 24 in the second half.

Elfrid Payton was the high scorer for the Magic, with 19 points in 33 minutes. While Miami played tonight without James Johnson, Justise Winslow, and Dion Waiters, the Magic were also short on starters as they’ve been plagued with injuries as well. They were forced to play without Nikola Vucevic, Terrence Ross, and Aaron Gordon, depleted their roster quite a bit.

Next: Miami Heat: Time to give Erik Spoelstra credit for team's successes

The Miami Heat are now 18-16 for the season, coming in eighth in the Eastern Conference. The winners of five of their last seven, the Heat look to keep up the good work as they host the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night.