Tyler Herro hits game-winner, lifting Heat to payback road victory over Magic. Takeaways

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 89-88 win over the Orlando Magic (19-13) on Thursday night at Kia Center to open a three-game trip. The Heat (15-13) continues the trip on Saturday against the Hawks in Atlanta:

After blowing a 22-point lead in Orlando on Saturday, the Heat returned to Orlando and put together its own fourth-quarter comeback six days later.

The Heat entered Thursday’s fourth quarter in a 10-point hole, but opened the final period on a 16-5 run to pull ahead by one point and take its first lead of the night with 7:42 to play.

The Heat extended its lead to five with 2:05 remaining, but still found itself down by one point with 4.9 seconds remaining.

That’s when the Heat came out of a timeout and turned to Tyler Herro to save the night.

“Just getting the ball to the top and letting me work,” Herro said. “That was the play.”

Herro delivered, dribbling into a game-winning 19-foot midrange jumper to put the Heat ahead by one point with 0.5 seconds left.

“We were able to get him the ball,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “get him a little bit of space and then he was able to take it to a spot and elevate.

“At that point in the last three minutes, we were running every action through him. He has the guts.”

The Magic had one final opportunity to come away with the victory, but couldn’t get a shot off before the final buzzer. Jalen Suggs’ 25-foot three-point attempt came out of his hand just after the final buzzer, but the shot rimmed out anyway.

The Heat outscored the Magic 28-17 in the fourth quarter to come away with the one-point victory.

Alec Burks helped spark the Heat’s comeback with 11 points in the final period, but the Heat’s defense was the catalyst behind the rally.

With the Heat relying on its 2-3 zone defense for most of the second half, Miami limited Orlando to just 36 points on 34.2 percent shooting from the field and 2-of-16 (12.5 percent) shooting from three-point range over the final two quarters.

According to Second Spectrum, the Magic scored just 0.58 points per possession in half-court situations against the Heat’s zone defense on Thursday. The Heat used its zone defense for 14 defensive possessions in the fourth quarter compared to going with its man-to-man defense for only six possessions in the final period.

“This was by any means necessary,” Spoelstra said when asked how the Heat’s zone defense affected the Magic. “It was whatever. It could have been our man, it could have been zone, we had to get stops. It’s never the scheme. It’s whatever gets us in the mentality to do tough things, I’m game for it.”

The Heat also won with the help of a huge 45-15 edge from three-point range. Miami shot 15 of 30 (50 percent) on threes and Orlando shot just 5 of 30 (16.7 percent) on threes.

That was enough for the Heat to overcome a season-low four-point performance from Bam Adebayo and sloppy play that resulted in 21 turnovers.

Along with hitting the game-winner, Herro finished with a team-high 20 points for the Heat.

Three other Heat players finished with double-digit points.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. contributed 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and a career-high five steals in 31 minutes. He also shot 3 of 5 from three-point range in the win after entering Thursday shooting just 24.4 percent from behind the arc for the season.

“It feels good to hit a few, I’m not going to lie,” Jaquez said after making a season-high three threes against the Magic. “But coaches and teammates, they never told me to stop shooting. They always tell me to let it fly. That just gives me confidence.”

Burks added 17 points with the help of 3-of-3 shooting from three-point range, six rebounds and three steals in 32 minutes off the Heat’s bench.

“I’m just trying to star in my role,” Burks said.

Terry Rozier totaled 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 shooting on threes, four rebounds, one assist and one steal in 29 minutes off the Heat’s bench.

But before the impressive comeback, the start of Thursday’s game was ugly for the Heat.

After outscoring the Heat 37-8 to rally from a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit on its way to a miraculous 121-114 win in Orlando on Saturday, the Magic carried that momentum into Thursday’s matchup between the two teams.

The Magic began Thursday’s contest on a 14-0 run and pulled ahead by as many as 17 points in the first quarter.

But the Heat pushed back to cut that deficit to four late in the second quarter before the Magic responded with an 8-1 run to close the period. As a result, Orlando entered halftime with an 11-point advantage despite shooting just 3 of 13 (23.1 percent) from three-point range and committing 14 turnovers in the first half.

The Heat and Magic traded runs in the third quarter, with Orlando managing to enter the final period with a 10-point lead.

Then the Heat’s comeback happened.

“It felt good just to get the win,” Herro said. “We felt sick to our stomachs after that last game [in Orlando], really giving up that lead. So just coming back in this building not even a week later is really gratifying.”

The Magic was without its best two players, as Paolo Banchero (torn right oblique) and Franz Wagner (torn right oblique) missed Thursday’s contest. Orlando was also without Gary Harris (strained left hamstring) and Moe Wagner (torn ACL).

“I don’t know if it was our best win this year, but it was definitely our toughest win this season,” Spoelstra said. “We showed the most grit, collective grit, the most mental toughness tonight to be able to find a way to win.”

Jimmy Butler was again unavailable on Thursday, but he’s expected to rejoin the Heat ahead of Saturday’s matchup against the Hawks in Atlanta.

Butler was unavailable against the Magic for what the team listed as “return to competition reconditioning.” It marked the third straight game that he has missed, with the first two coming because of what the team labeled as a “stomach illness.”

Thursday marked the eighth game that Butler has missed in the Heat’s first 28 games this season. At this pace, he’ll miss at least 20 games for the fourth time in the last five regular seasons.

But Butler, 35, is expected to rejoin the Heat ahead of Saturday’s game against the Hawks in Atlanta.

Butler has been at the center of trade speculation this month, with ESPN’s Shams Charania reporting Wednesday that Butler prefers to be traded out of Miami.

In the wake of that report, Heat president Pat Riley issued a strong statement on Thursday afternoon to push back against all the trade noise.

“We usually don’t comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches,” Riley said in the statement. “Therefore, we will make it clear — we are not trading Jimmy Butler.”

Sources involved with Butler and the Heat both said that he has not formally requested a trade, but nobody has denied that he is unhappy. Butler’s relationship with the team has become somewhat strained in recent months.

But there has been nothing to suggest that a Butler trade is imminent — even before Riley’s statement.

Butler has averaged 18.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting a career-best 55.2 percent from the field in 20 games this season. He leads the Heat in most advanced metrics this season, including estimated plus/minus, win shares and box plus/minus.

Along with missing Butler, the Heat was also without Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation) and Dru Smith (left Achilles tear).

The Heat also lost forward Nikola Jovic to an injury late in Thursday’s game.

Jovic exited the contest with 10:28 left in the fourth quarter because of a sprained left ankle and did not return.

Jovic has sprained his left ankle three separate times in the past month. He missed two games in early December because of a sprained left ankle and one game in mid-December because of a sprained left ankle.

Jovic recorded eight points, four rebounds and five assists in 24 minutes before leaving Thursday’s game early in the fourth quarter.

The Heat won, but Adebayo struggled to score.

Adebayo totaled just four points 2-of-10 shooting from the field on Thursday. He scored two points in each half.

It marks the fifth game that Adebayo has finished with single-digit points over the Heat’s first 28 games this season after being limited to single-digit points in just four games last season.

Adebayo is averaging 16.3 points per game on 45.3 percent shooting from the field this season. The three-time NBA All-Star has shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of the first seven seasons of his NBA career prior to this season

While Adebayo didn’t score many points on Thursday, he did contribute nine rebounds, seven assists and five blocks.

Thursday’s game between the Heat and Magic produced one of the ugliest games of the NBA season (if you like offense).

Not only was it the lowest scoring NBA game of the season so far (both teams combined to total 177 points), but it was also the first game this season where neither team reached 90 points.

Both the Heat and Magic also committed more than 20 turnovers on Thursday.

“This was a total throwback 90s game for both sides,” Spoelstra said.

According to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, it also marked the first time the Heat has entered the fourth quarter of a regular-season game facing a double-digit deficit and won since Oct. 26, 2019 against the Bucks in Milwaukee.

The Heat is now 8-0 this season when holding its opponent under 100 points.

“The ultimate deal is just to find a way to win,” Spoelstra said. “Sometimes that gets lost in this league with all the scoring and all the stats and all that stuff. It’s really about finding a way to get the W.”