The Miami Heat travel to Orlando to face the Magic in the Emirates Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday. (Photo Courtesy of the Miami Heat // Twitter)
While Tuesday night’s contest against the Orlando Magic will count against the standings, it’s not just any regular-season game.
Hoping to snap a three-game losing streak, Tuesday marks the Emirates Cup quarterfinals between the Heat and Magic at 6:00 p.m. EST inside Kia Center. The two intrastate foes are on track to meet seven times this season (two preseason, five regular season).
Both teams enter tied for the No. 5 seed in the East at 14-10. Miami was winners of six straight and seven of its last eight before its three-game skid. The Magic, who contributed to one of the Heat’s three recent losses on Friday, are winners of 10 of their last 14. Though they will have to navigate without leading scorer Franz Wagner, who suffered a high ankle sprain in Sunday’s six-point loss to the New York Knicks.
What’s at stake?! Let’s examine!
The season series:
The last time that the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic played five times in a single regular season was 1993-94. They have already played twice this season — both resulting in Magic victories. Orlando bested Miami 125-121 on opening night and 106-105 on Friday.
The Emirates Cup quarterfinals will be the Magic’s first opportunity to secure not only the season series, but at least three regular-season wins against Miami since 2018-19, when it went 3-1.
The Heat have dropped the regular season series just twice to their intrastate foe since 2008-09.
A leg-up on the standings … for now:
If you haven’t noticed yet, the top of the East is a mess, sans the Detroit Pistons, who are in sole possession atop the East at 19-5, 2.5 games above the rest of the pack.
Everyone else? Well, there’s a three-game gap between the No. 2-seeded Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers, embroiled in a three-way tie for No. 7 with the beleaguered Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks.
A half-game separates the Magic and Heat from those three aforementioned teams. A win on Tuesday gives the Heat the leg up in the standings, though that flip with the snap of a finger.
A trip to Las Vegas:
Sin City! Miami has never advanced to the quarterfinal round in the Emirates Cup’s brief history, let alone gone to Las Vegas.
A win Tuesday stamps that. The winner will face the winner between the Knicks and Toronto Raptors inside T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, Dec. 13. Since both games count toward the regular season, the losers will also play each other later this week (time/date TBA).
Money!:
Everyone loves a good pay raise, correct?!
Well, there’s real money on the line.
By advancing to the Emirates Cup quarterfinals, each player on the Heat’s 15-man roster receives $53,093. By advancing to the semifinals, that money doubles to $106,187 apiece. Here is how the prize money sorts out:
Quarterfinals: $53,093 apiece
Semifinals: $106,187
Runner Up: $212,373
Champions: $530,933
The prize money won’t mean everything for every player’s pocket. But for players such as Dru Smith ($2.4 million), Pelle Larsson ($1.96M) and Keshad Johnson ($1.96M), who are on smaller contracts, it makes a difference.
Plus, who doesn’t like some extra dough?!
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