The Orlando Magic used a 10-0 run with less than eight minutes left in regulation to cap off a big fourth-quarter comeback and beat the Miami Heat 104-100 Wednesday night at the Amway Center in both team’s preseason finales.
The Magic rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to even the two-game series between the Sunshine State rivals, and ultimately avoided a lockout-shortened preseason sweep by the Heat, who routed Orlando 118-85 Sunday night in Miami.
“No matter what happened in the first half, we got a lot of good shots, and we just have to get into a rhythm of playing. I think once that happens, we’ll be ok,” Dwight Howard said in the post-game interview. “We all came out, our energy level was up, we ran more…Everybody was just playing hard, and that made a big difference.”
“We stayed focused, we didn’t worry about missing shots, turning the ball over; we just kept playing, and that was a great sign,” Howard added.
Newly acquired Glen “Big Baby” Davis, a Magic adversary in recent years as a member of the Boston Celtics, fueled the second half comeback with his energy and 13 third-quarter points. Davis hit an array of shots, mainly from inside the paint, while drawing contact that led to “And 1” baskets and ignited the rest of the team during the run.
“That was huge for us. That was a huge part of our win today,” forward Ryan Anderson said. “His energy is contagious- that’s big for him to come in and take over. He’s a very verbal guy, and I think that’s huge for this team.”
Davis finished with 18 points and five rebounds in the game.
Despite the impressive comeback, the Magic appeared on path for another blowout loss at the hands of the Heat after an awful first half.
Orlando shot 14-of-42 from the field in the opening half, including a woeful two-0f-18 from the three-point line. Jameer Nelson, Glen Davis and Jason Richardson combined to shoot five-of-17, with Nelson going 14 percent from the field. The All-Star point guard started out the preseason 0-of-15 before hitting his first shot in the second quarter.
“Actually even in the first half, I thought we really came out with good energy and good life. We just couldn’t make a shot,” Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy said. “I thought our first six or seven possessions we got great shots. I thought defensively we fought hard in the first half. We just fouled every time… The fouls, the turnovers and the free throw shooting are probably the three things you could look at there and have a great concern with, but we had good life in the second half, which was good.”
With the Magic’s poor shooting, the Heat were able to take advantage and bring a 56-42 lead into halftime, led by LeBron James’ 19 points. Miami shot only 38 percent from the field in the first half, but dominated the turnover battle and got to the free-throw line with ease.
The Heat forced 12 turnovers, while only committing five, and shot a whopping 40 free throws, converting 29 of them.
The second half was a completely different story.
The Magic were able to outscore the Heat 62-44 in the closing half, which began with a 10-2 run to open the third quarter.
Orlando shot much better in the second half, going 24-for-34 (71%) from the floor, and six-for-nine (68%) from beyond the arc.
“We played an exceptional first half. In the second half, they made a few shots,” James said. “They broke our defense down on the pick and roll. We can watch the film and get better from it. Overall, I thought we had a really good training camp. We are ready for the regular season to begin.”
Nelson, Jason Richardson and Davis combined for 31 points on 12-of-13 shooting in the second half, including a perfect six-for-six from Big Baby, who sparked the initial run for the Magic.
From there, it was a back-and-forth battle between the two Southeast Division foes as they traded baskets. But, an eventual 10-0 run by Orlando allowed the Magic to pull away and notch the comeback victory.
James led all scorers with 27 points, while Wade posted 21 points, to go along with five boards and four steals.
Miami actually shot much better in the second half (44.4%), but just couldn’t overcome the lights-out shooting from the Magic.
“We made shots. Here’s the thing, that is such a big thing in this game, and people don’t understand because when the ball is going in you’re saying ‘wow, they’re playing well and moving the ball’… I mean a lot of it comes down to shooting, and in the second half, we made shots, so that makes everything look good,” Van Gundy said.
It was a physical and hard-played contest for a preseason game, which included a verbal spat between LeBron James and Quentin Richardson.
Miami will begin its regular season Christmas Day in a rematch against the Dallas Mavericks, who defeated the Heat in six games in last year’s NBA Finals, while the Magic will begin their season with a Christmas Day matchup against Oklahoma City.
“I’m in my 12th year; I’m ready to play regular season games,” Quentin Richardson said. We definitely erneded a couple of preseason games- Coach and everybody thinks we need mroe work. But as a player, I like regualr season and playoff games better.”
