Miami Heat vs. Orlando Magic NBA Opening Night Preview: Injury Report, What To Watch For, Prediction

Miami Heat vs. Orlando Magic NBA Opening Night Preview: Injury Report, What To Watch For, Prediction

[Music] We are just about 24 hours away from the season beginning for the Miami Heat when they travel to Orlando to take on the Magic as 8 and a half point underdogs. It’s in Orlando at the Kia Center overunders 214 and a half. I am Nick Rolloff. This is the Heat Report and on today’s show we are going to do an opening night preview. will look at the injury reports. I’ll say what I’m looking for as well as my prediction for the game. But if you want the Heat to beat the Magic and start the season 1 and 0, do not jinx it. I’m keeping a list of everybody who watched the video but didn’t hit that thumbs up icon. So if the Heat lose, your name better not be on that list. Hit that thumbs up icon. Just a pair of injuries for each team here. They list Jaylen Suggs and Mo Vagner as game time decisions for Orlando. They are both likely out. Mo Vagner definitely out. Suggs has not been ruled out as of filming this video, but is very likely he does not play. Tyler Hero is ruled out obviously. Casper Yakonis is going to be out as well. The rookie out of Illinois is dealing with that groin strain. Um hopefully he returns sooner rather than later, but it will likely not be in the opening game. Who knows when he will actually make his debut. Now the starting lineup for the Miami Heat is not certified, but I am likely going to believe it is going to be this and I project it to be this. I think it should be this. I think DaVon Mitchell, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Nicole Yovic, and Bameio are your going to be your starters. just makes a ton of sense to start Mitchell for defensive reasons and then Yoic for the offensive reasons with no Tyler Hero. And the Magic Jaylen Suggs, their normal starting point guard. They signed Tai Jones to a contract and free agency this off season. They obviously traded for Desmond Bane in that blockbuster with the Grizzlies. Those two will start in the back court. Different look. Last year in the opening game against Miami, it was KCP and Jaylen Suggs. This year’s Ty Jones and Desmond Bane with that same front court though of France Vagner, Paulo Benero, and Wendell Carter Jr. top five players off the bench for the Orlando Magic if you are unfamiliar with their team. First round pick out of Michigan State, Jace Richardson had a really impressive preseason. He’ll likely get a lot of minutes in this game off the bench. You’ll also see former first round picks Anthony Black, Tristan Dilva, Jonathan Isaac, and Goa Badati. All former first round picks. Fun fact, a lot of firstrounders on this Orlando Magic team. Young bench. And if we’re going to be honest, the Heat’s biggest advantage may come off of the bench. Bringing Kel Wear, bringing Jame Hz off the bench. That could be something where Miami really takes advantage of the youth that Orlando has. But the Magic are a very good team. You saw the starting lineup. You saw the bench. They are deep. They are athletic. The one thing that they lacked last season was an offensive punch in shooting from beyond the ark. They hope to get that with the newly acquired Desmond Bane. I think the Magic are a top three team in the East. I did this earlier on in the summer. I’ll rehash my Eastern Conference tears heading into the regular season. I think without a question, the three top teams and in a tier of their own, I don’t think any of them are separated from each other. I think Orlando, Cleveland, and New York all deserve to be mentioned within the same breath. And then I think the Heat are actually in this tier two. Am I a little bit optimistic and maybe bullish on the Heat and Call me a homer? Slightly, but I think they are absolutely on par with teams like Detroit and Atlanta because I think the injuries to Boston, Indiana, Milwaukee are just going to be too much to overcome. I mean, no Hallebertton for an entire year is huge. No Jason Tatum for a long time is crazy. I don’t think the Bucks roster is very good. I have those teams in a tier of their own as that third tier. I think Miami, Atlanta, Detroit easily could be that three or four, five, and six seed in the East this year. But I do think Orlando is a tier above Miami at least to start the season before injuries and potential roster moves can be made. So, let’s segue now after we looked at the injuries in the roster and the starting lineups to what I’m watching for. The number one thing I’m watching for is how does Miami defend that lineup that Orlando has out there because there’s a lot of size and there’s a lot of versatility. Miami going with what they have at their starting five. It’s it’ll be intriguing to see how they match up because I like to put Bam on Vancero, but do you trust Yoic or Wiggins to guard Wendell Carter? Carter’s a pretty big physical presence. So, this is how I’m actually matching up in this game. If the starting lineups are correct, these are the matchups. I’m putting DaVon Mitchell on Desmond Bane. Bane is their best guard scorer. I would like to create havoc. I don’t want to let him get any clean looks off. And when he puts the ball in the deck, I want Mitchell to be on his ass. So, I’m putting off Knight Mitchell on Desmond Bane. Powell obviously the weakest defender in this starting five that I project. Put him on Tyus Jones. Jones isn’t going to really take you off the dribble. isn’t really gonna drive to the rim. He’s more or less a pick and roll kind of ball handler. Um, catch and shoot three-point shooter. So, I think Powell fits really well on him. Vagner is obviously a dynamic scoreer, but we’ve seen Yoic actually defend him pretty well in the past. Yoic matches up really well with Vagner in terms of versatility, in terms of size, in terms of strength. That’s a matchup I think Yovic can hold his own in. And I’m gonna put our best wing defender, Andrew Wiggins, on Palo Benero because one, Banero is a very physical imposing player. He will drive. He will really go at you. Don’t think Yovic, even though he’s put on a lot of weight, I don’t think he is able to defend him. Don’t want Nicole Yovic on Paulo Bancero. Wiggins your best wing defender. Is he as strong as Paulo? No, but not many people are. but he’s long and he’s a very good defender who’s smart, can get his hands on Paulo’s loose dribble at times. I think Wiggins defending Vancero makes a ton of sense and then we’ll have Bam on Wendell Carter Jr. But when we see where and Bam potentially staggering minutes in this game to where they are together on the floor. If Banero and Carter or Banero and Goabadazzi are on, you’re obviously gonna put Bam on Banero who’s defended Paulo really well in the past and then put on whatever center Orlando has in the game. Make sure you do subscribe to the channel because we will be live for the season opener Heat Magic opening night. Hopefully we see Miami get a win unlike last season. Subscribe and join the channel. And when you see this thumbnail tomorrow evening, click on it and join us. The second thing I’m looking for, will the Heat continue the pace that they have been playing with during the NBA preseason? We’ve talked a lot about pace here in the preseason. Miami’s been a bottom five pace team in the NBA over the last four years. That also coincides with them being a bottom five offensive team in the NBA over the last four seasons. Well, this matchup is going to be interesting because these two teams historically play really, really slow, but in the preseason, their tempo has picked up. The Heat’s preseason pace was eighth out of 30 NBA teams after being 27th in pace just a year ago. Well, ironically enough, the Orlando Magic are actually a team rarely behind Miami in pace. They came in at dead last. They played at the slowest pace in the NBA last season, but in the preseason played at the 15th highest pace. Still not crazy fast, but certainly faster than what they did last season. Is this just a preseason trend, or is this a game where both teams in Miami and Orlando are going to try to play more uptempo and have a kind of scheme shift, if you will, from last season to this year. More coming up here in a second, but this episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every single day. The right decisions on Prize Picks can get you paid. And with basketball back, I could not be more excited. You can go to football. You can go to basketball. You can customize the way you play, which players are going off, which ones are overhyped. Make your picks in less than 60 seconds and turn your C uh takes into cash all season long on prize picks. You can choose how you play. You want flexibility, go with the flex play. You want to win big, go with the power play. No matter how you play, prize picks, put your takes to the test. I’m going more than Steph Curry. Take advantage of the max discount in the opener between Los Angeles and Golden State. Half a point. Go more there. Going with more than Nola Yoic. 6 and a half rebounds and assists in this game. I think he easily gets about five boards and at minimum three assists. We’ll ultimately see though. I’m going less than on Paulo Bancero. 25 and a half points. He usually defend him pretty well. We’ll see how that ad ultimately comes out. But download the prize picks app today and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. Last kind of point on this uptempo, this pace discussion. It’s just so fascinating to me that Miami and Orlando have been historically slow defensive game type teams where they’re winning games low 100 points consistently and when Miami and Orlando play a lot of times it finishes in the 90s a piece but both played fast in the preseason. Was that all for show or is this a legit change for both teams? And the reason why I’m asking this question in pushing back a little bit on the Heat side of things where they’ve been more uptempo is because if you just go back one year, the Heat had a top 10 pace in the preseason and all of us were talking about, okay, are we starting to play up tempo? And then they obviously finished this past year with the 27th pace. So there have been a lot of chatter on Miami side about playing more uptempo. Now I need to see in the regular season, we’ve heard you talk about to the media. We’ve seen the preseason, seeing the regular season. Be interested to see the pace that this game is ultimately played at. Third thing I’m looking at, how does this Heat offense look without Tyler Hero? It’s crazy that we’re saying this because Hero has just been a nice rotate or not I wouldn’t say rotation, but like he’s been a key player, but he hasn’t been the revolving piece in the offense. Well, last season Miami revolved its entire offense around Hero. extremely high usage rate and Hero backed it up with a career year, made the All-Star game and was awesome playing in over 74 games, but he’s obviously missing the first two, three weeks of the season. And when the Heat’s offense was about bottom 10 in the NBA last season, 24th in points, 21st in offensive rating, 27th in pace, now they were relatively efficient, 12th in three-point percentage, 18th in field goal percentage. you’re now going to be missing Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson. So, how is that three-point percentage going to look? Is it going to be 12th in the NBA? No. It’s probably going to be a little bit worse if Norman Powell and others don’t really up their three-point efficiency for Miami. Like, you’re losing a massive initiating piece in this offense. A guy last season that accounted for about 30 points per game a night. And that is lowballing it, right? Average five and a half assists and 24 points. So, at bare minimum, it’s about 30 points a game from Tyler Herro, but it’s more likely around 3540 points a game for Miami, which is about 3540% of the offense. So, without Tyler Herro, who is going to be able to pick up the slack for Miami? Obviously, the person you point to is Norman Powell, the veteran who averaged 20 points a game last season for the Clippers, but you’re also going to need to see offensive improvements from guys like Bam. Bam can’t be averaging 17, 18 points a game with Hero out. When Hero comes back, sure, you can go back to that, but Bam’s gonna need to average 20, 22, 23 points in the first month of the season to help pick up this offensive slack. You’re going to need to see better Andrew Wiggins. You’re going to need to see a better Himemehz Jr., some more offense from Yovic and KL Wear. Like, I don’t think it’s one person. It’s going to have to be a collective effort. But we do need to see some of these guys take a step up in terms of their efficiency both in the field as well as from beyond the arc to maximize this offense without Tyler Herro. Final thing I’m looking at here. Can Khal Wear impact winning? This has been a large topic of conversation for Miami Heat fans. Should he start? Should he not start? I’ve said it should be Yovic. I think it will be Yoic, but where was so good in the preseason, it’s like, okay, is this the beginning of a secondyear leap and an ascension to potential stardom here? Because he was the leading scorer, leading rebounder for the Heat in the preseason. He was the number one rebounder in the entire NBA preseason and he shot extremely well from the field, including a staggering 38.1% from beyond the arc. Now, he might have led the NBA in total stats because he played in all six preseason games and played 24 minutes a night, but this is a guy who looked like a different player in the preseason. And you’re just have to sit here and wonder, is this something we’re getting the entire season or is this just the preseason because he’s playing inferior competition? Like, we’re playing regular season. We’re playing teams that want to win every game. That wasn’t the case in the preseason. Can he impact winning? Not just put up empty stats, but put up big numbers, but also help really move the needle to get Miami Heat wins. That’s the question we have to see. All right, it’s that time, folks. I’m going to give you my official score prediction here in one second, but predict the score of Heat versus Magic opening night. Get down in the comments section and let me know. Upset alert. Upset alert. Upset alert. I’m going with Miami. Listen, I can be optimistic for at least one game this season. I’m going with the Heat getting a win on the road. 106 103. I think it’s low scoring because both these teams pride themselves on their defense and historically have played at a slow pace. So, I think the under might be a good play at 214 and a half. We’ll ultimately see what happens there. But, I think the Heat might shock some people, man. I think they do match up relatively well with Orlando defensively. Norman Pow will be fun to watch in the opener. I believe in Yovic’s fourth year leap. I believe in Wear taking a leap this second year. I think it’s going to be a good game. It’s going to be a fun game. And if the Heat can win this one on the road, it’s going to be a heck of a start to the season where they need to just go 500 in the first 10 games. Brutal first 10 games of the season. Lot of road games, lot of good opponents. No Tyler Hero. If you could just go five and five in the first 10 games, I would be pretty happy with that. And it all starts potentially with a good win against a divisional opponent and a top team in the East in Orlando. All right, that’ll do it for today’s show. Make sure you do subscribe because we’ll be live tomorrow for the opening night. So, make sure you subscribe and join us. [Music]

Miami Heat vs. Orlando Magic preview is the topic of this Heat rumors and Miami Heat news YouTube video! The Heat look to start a bounce-back season on the road against Paolo Banchero and the rising Orlando Magic. This Heat Magic preview is sponsored by PrizePicks! Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Heat Report host Nic Rohloff takes a look at the Miami Heat injury report, Orlando Magic injury report, Miami Heat starting lineup, Orlando Magic starting lineup, and Heat keys to victory for Miami Heat vs. Orlando Magic on NBA Opening Night. Tyler Herro and Kasparas Jakucionis are the two players on today’s Heat injury news. The Orlando Magic injury news features Jalen Suggs and Mo Wagner.

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Miami Heat starting lineup:
Davion Mitchell
Norman Powell
Andrew Wiggins
Nikola Jovic
Bam Adebayo

Orlando Magic starting lineup:
Tyus Jones
Desmond Bane
Franz Wagner
Paolo Banchero
Wendell Carter Jr.

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Heat vs. Magic | NBA Opening Night
Spread: Magic -8.5
Total (O/U): 214.5
Time / Date: 7p ET, October 22nd
Location: Orlando, FL
TV: NBA League Pass

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Want more Heat rumors YouTube videos? Check out some of the ones posted this week:
– Miami Heat Receive GOOD & BAD News Before Season Opener vs. Orlando Magic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb9WR2rGD9s
– 🚨Miami Heat Make A FLURRY Of Roster Moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLCS7gjdeUg
– Heat Trade Rumors BEFORE NBA Regular Season Ft. Giannis Antetokounmpo & Lauri Markkanen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ2MfMPLREg

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