This time the Miami Heat turned the tables five days after blowing a 25-point lead in this building five nights earlier.
In dramatic fashion, no less.
Battling back from a 17-point deficit Thursday night at Kia Center, Erik Spoelstra’s team found a way in the absence of Jimmy Butler, winning on a Tyler Herro 19-foot jumper that closed the scoring with five-tenths of a second to play.
Heat 89, Magic 88 – with the game ending with Magic guard Jalen Suggs off with a 3-pointer just before the closing buzzer.
It was a rugged, gritty, at times painful experience, as Spoelstra had forecast when his team arrived in Orlando for Saturday’s game.
This time, though, it was the Heat grit that persevered, albeit with the Magic still playing in the absences of leading men Paolo Banchero and Franz Wager.
Herro led the Heat with 19 points, supported by 17 from Alec Burks, 15 from Jaime Jaquez Jr. and 14 from Terry Rozier, on a night Heat center Bam Adebayo was limited to four points on 2-of-10 shooting.
Suggs led the Magic with 29 points.
Closing time: The Magic led 31-22 at the close of the first period, 52-41 at halftime and 71-61 going into the fourth quarter.
But as the Magic’s streak of missed 3-pointers eventually grew to 19, the Heat climbed within 71-67 early in the fourth quarter, later moving with 76-75 on a Jaquez 3-pointer with 8:32 left, essentially resetting the game.
A Herro 3-pointer with 3:33 to play then put the Heat up 85-80, only to be followed by three Heat turnovers.
Eventually, that allowed a 3-pointer by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to draw the Magic within 87-86 with 52 seconds to play.
Off another Heat turnover with 27 seconds to play, the Magic scored on a follow-up scramble for an 88-87 lead with 4.9 seconds to play.
That’s when Herro stepped up to close the scoring.
