Orlando Magic Game Breakdown vs the Miami Heat
Welcome to your new look Orlando Magic squad for the 20252026 season. Opening night rotation is Jaylen Suggs, Desmond Bane, Fron Vagner, Paulo Barnes, and Wendell Carter Jr. Yes, the Magic ek out a win over the Heat in a game they probably should have lost with Desmond Bane and Jaylen Suggs saving them from a bad Paulo game. The key takeaways are that Desmond Bane is going to be huge for their shotmaking ability. France is a 32% three-point shooter. Paulo is a 32% three-point shooter. Jaylen Suggs is improving but 33% on his career. Meanwhile, Desmond Bane is 41% from distance off dribble. That said, they’re going to have to figure out the pecking order. Desmond Bane is probably the third option for the team, maybe second, but he and Paulo struggled at times to determine who was going to be taking the big shots. The transition D was horrendous. They didn’t hustle back multiple times against the Heat, giving up 25 points off 15 turnovers, including a disgusting open three after a made basket. And of course, with the Orlando Magic, it’s the center position. Have I told you the definition of insanity? They will only go as far as Wendell Carter Jr. or Goa Betataz holds them back. Just looking around the league, Luke Cornet, Ariel Huckporty, Nick Claxton, I really would like to see this team find a legit sevenfooter around the trade deadline or somebody who’s a high-flying defensive anchor for the team. And the biggest concern I have is the second unit with Taius Jones is going to be a problem until they figure that out. Tyus Jones is a horrific defender and a mediocre offensive player already. and Goa being the last line of defense for the second unit is going to be a problem. Either Anthony Black learns to play basketball or you put in Jonathan Isaac as a double big to help out on the defensive end. Going player by player, Paulo, it’s funny to say 24 and 11 on efficiency was a bad night, but he was just not there today. He fumbled a potentially game-sealing layup and he settled for a lot of low efficiency long contested mid-range twos. Bronze Wagner was his usual good self. I still don’t love the hitch in his shot. Desmond Bane was great. There was some minor issues not knowing each other, a couple of ugly turnovers, but he made threes and came up huge in the fourth, including a game-sealing loose ball. Jaylen Suggs, simply put, is amazing. He is the team. He was on a minutes restriction after his knee surgery. And the team just plays different with and without him on the floor. Wendell Carter Jr. was useless for three and a half quarters. They have two backup centers and it’s been a problem for the Magic for a long time, but he came up on the offensive and defensive glass in the fourth quarter and was huge and key to the win. Now, Taius Jones is going to be the big question mark for this team. He’s fine for 10 minutes tonight backing up Jaylen Suggs, but he cannot be a key piece of the rotation when your center defense is already an issue. The Heat dismantled the Taius Jones, Window Cutter Jr. pick and roll all night. Anthony Black was awful offensively. He was okay defensively, but you really want him to learn how to play the point guard or learn how to shoot the ball. Otherwise, he might be out of the league. Tristan Dilva was solid. Made a couple of huge threes. Go was go. Jonathan Isaac was really bad. I don’t know if it’s rust or if he forgot how to play basketball, but he was part of the reason why their transition defense was so bad. He only played seven minutes. No, Jet Howard was a little disappointing. I like his three andD potential. And officially they ran kind of an eight and a half man rotation for the first night of an 82 game season. That’s got to be a little worrying for the team. Putting heavy minutes on these guys already. But at the end of the day, the Orlando Magic walk away with a victory here to start off the 2025 2026 campaign with playoffs in their mind and championship aspirations. Great showing from the team. Great showing from the new addition Desmond Bane.
Miami Heat vs Orlando Magic
Starters PTS REB AST FG 3PT FT PF MIN STL BLK TO +/- FPTS
P. Banchero
24 11 1 7/17 1/3 9/12 1 35 1 1 2 -2 37
F. Wagner
24 4 6 9/17 2/5 4/6 5 35 2 0 2 +5 40
D. Bane
23 4 3 7/18 3/7 6/6 4 32 0 2 4 -3 31
J. Suggs
14 4 2 6/7 2/3 0/0 3 16 2 0 2 +15 22
W. Carter Jr.
9 8 1 2/5 0/1 5/5 4 29 1 1 2 -7 19
Bench PTS REB AST FG 3PT FT PF MIN STL BLK TO +/- FPTS
T. da Silva
16 1 0 5/8 3/5 3/4 0 18 0 0 1 +11 16
G. Bitadze
8 8 4 3/4 0/1 2/2 1 18 1 1 0 +11 26
A. Black
7 3 3 3/9 1/2 0/0 2 23 0 1 0 +13 17
T. Jones
0 2 3 0/4 0/3 0/0 0 23 0 1 2 -17 7
J. Isaac
0 1 0 0/1 0/1 0/0 0 7 1 0 0 -6 2
J. Cain
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
J. Howard
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
J. Richardson
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
N. Penda
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
C. Castleton
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
O. Robinson
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
Total 125 46 23 42/90 12/31 29/35 20 236 8 7 15 +20 217
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