Orlando Magic extend Miami Heat losing streak to three

ORLANDO – The Miami Heat’s offense has fallen, and it can’t get up.

Unable to either control or shoot the ball, Erik Spoelstra’s team fell to its third consecutive loss Sunday night, this time a 105-87 setback at the hands of the Orlando Magic at Kia Center.

“It definitely looks bad, it feels bad, but we’ve got to get through it,” guard Tyler Herro said.

Shooting .375 from the field and committing 18 turnovers, the Heat continued their slide to the bottom of the league in offensive efficiency, with a season low in points and field goals.

Not only has the shift into the starting lineup of forward Nikola Jovic stopped producing results, but the Heat now have lost both games since point guard Kyle Lowry was shifted to a reserve role.

“We’re in a rough patch right now,” center Bam Adebayo said.

While there were sparks of individual offensive output from the Heat, including 10 third-quarter points from Jimmy Butler, it all too often was a scramble for anything cohesive, with three shot-clock violations during the first three quarters.

“It’s a funky time of year for us,” guard Kyle Lowry said.

Spoelstra hardly needed the latest struggle to convince him what was wrong.

“We just need to get back on track,” he said. “We were trending in a better direction in December and it’s a matter of being collectively intentional, every single possession, every single game, and we get off track from intentionality and away from out strength zones, which at this point in the season, we know what out identity is, we know what out strength zones are.

“The competition will have something to say about that. But it’s proven to be costly to us when we stray away from there.”

And so, the first three-game losing streak since losses to the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks in late November, the Heat 5-7 in their last 12, with challenging games ahead this week against the Boston Celtics and Knicks.

On a night of limited offense, the Heat got 22 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists from Adebayo, 15 points from Butler and 12 from Herro.

The Magic got 20 points and 10 rebounds from Paolo Banchero.

We’re going to get to work on this, and we have been working on this,” Spoelstra said. “It’s been a rough stretch for us offensively the last couple of games.

“You don’t want to totally overreact.”

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Magic led 22-19 at the end of the first quarter, then trailed 48-46 at halftime.

Orlando then put together a 14-2 run midway through the third period to move ahead 73-58, before closing the third period up 81-69.

The Magic pushed their lead to 100-78 before Butler returned in the fourth quarter with the Heat down 100-78.

Spoelstra then began pulling starters with 3:35 left and the Heat down 104-81.

“Those misses and some of the turnovers, momentum-shifting turnovers even early in the game affected our offensive mindset the rest of the game, which it shouldn’t,” Spoelstra said.

“It’s all about how you respond to this.”

2. The Lowry angle: For the second consecutive game and only the second time this season, Lowry again was cast in a reserve role by Spoelstra.

Spoelstra took time pregame to detail the decision.

“I’m going with this right now,” Spoelstra said. “I think this is an interesting direction and I’ll do whatever we feel that we have to do in the second half of the season. We are not where we want it to be.

“That’s not an indictment of one player. Kyle has been great, as a starter and really last year off the bench. So this isn’t really about him. This is about us trying to get to a higher level.”

Spoelstra cast the decision as more of a chemistry consideration.

“Combinations do matter,” he said. “Rotations do matter. Lineups that bring out the best in each other do matter. And I’m still in the process of trying to help the team figure it out.”

Lowry played 25:13 and closed with two points on 1-of-9 shooting, including 0 for 6 on 3-pointers.

“As a professional, I’m disappointed,” Lowry said of the shift to the second unit. “I haven’t played well.”

3. So, one more time: And with that, Spoelstra rolled out the same lineup that opened in Friday night’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks at Kaseya Center, one that featured Lowry, Adebayo, Nikola Jovic, Butler and Caleb Martin.

It was the 10th consecutive start for Jovic, who until mop-up duty played only his opening stints in the first and third periods, scoreless in those 11 minutes on 0-for-3 shooting.

“This is not necessarily about the lineups or the rotations right now,” Spoelstra said. “It’s about the fortitude of having to play through tough stretches.

“That’s not an excuse, we’ve been doing that  all year. Excuses only will lead us to misery.”

4. Full bag: Despite the size differential, Butler took the opening assignment on Banchero, and then took his own game outside, including converting a pair of 3-pointers at the outset of the second half, after hitting one in the first half.

At that stage, Butler was 3 of 3 on 3s, the rest of the Heat 6 of 22 from beyond the arc.

Butler was not available for comment postgame.

5. Pushing through: Adebayo was up to a double-double entering the fourth quarter, up to 16 points and 10 rebounds. That gave him his 12th double-double in the past 15 games.

But not even his high volume of shot attempts was enough to offset what the Magic got from their big men.

“We’ve got to get back to our basics,” Adebayo said. “I feel like we just got stagnant.”

Adebayo also appreciated all the moving parts, with the lineups, the rotation and rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. missing his fourth consecutive game with a groin strain.

“Coach has got to make difficult decisions,” Adebayo said.