{"id":567985,"date":"2026-01-29T06:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/567985\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T06:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:42:19","slug":"heats-norman-powell-sends-urgent-message-after-another-magic-loss-we-cant-keep-making-excuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/567985\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat\u2019s Norman Powell sends urgent message after another Magic loss: \u2018We can\u2019t keep making excuses\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heat\u2019s Norman Powell sends urgent message after another Magic loss: \u2018We can\u2019t keep making excuses\u2019<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MIAMI \u2013 With the Miami Heat<\/a> in a crucial stretch ahead of the All-Star break, especially coming off a brutal five-game road trip that had them play all of that in seven days, Wednesday\u2019s contest against the Orlando Magic was a vital one. Though the Heat are surrounded by trade rumors<\/a>, the team still has to play games, and more importantly, find consistency, as they dropped another game to their in-state rival, 133-124.<\/p>\n

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Miami and Orlando have played four games so far this season, with the latter taking every game, as Wednesday night had another instance of coming out flat in the third quarter. The Magic outscored the Heat 40-20 while Miami committed 18 turnovers, leading to 24 points, and gave up 64 points in the paint.<\/p>\n

For Norman Powell<\/a>, it\u2019s time for the team to stop \u201cmaking excuses\u201d<\/a> for their deficiencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t just keep making excuses for it, \u2018we\u2019re a young team,\u2019 this, that, and the other,\u201d Powell said, as he recorded 22 points in the loss. \u201cIf we want to do something special. Well, we can\u2019t have that. There\u2019s young teams in this league dominating, coming out with the right energy, focus, and intent every single game. So it\u2019s something that we got to collectively band together and get right, or we\u2019re going to get left, and we\u2019re going to be looking back at how we could have done this, should have done this, and the other, so we got to get better, and it has to start now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic have been frustrating for the Heat this season\"Jim<\/p>\n

Jim Rassol-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

As Heat\u2019s <\/a>Erik Spoelstra<\/a> put Bam Adebayo<\/a> and the team on blast for their defensive effort on the road trip, those struggles carried into the loss to Orlando on Wednesday. The closest thing that Miami could be compared to is like a broken record, especially against the Magic, where they come out and have impressive first halves, but fall apart in the second<\/a>, as pointed out by Spoelstra.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn basically all four games, we\u2019ve had great first halves, and just have not been able to sustain it against that team,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cWe started out flat. It\u2019s hard to explain that. Slowed the pace down, then they were scoring, then led to us turning the ball over. We had some really deflating offensive possessions\u2026we couldn\u2019t guard, to give up a 40-point third quarter on our home floor with great opportunity and playing really well in the first half, we just paid the price for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there was one person who held himself accountable, it was Powell, who said to ClutchPoints that Spoelstra called him out for his defense.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI got to be better. Coach called me out about it,\u201d Powell said. \u201cSpecifically, being in the help position and in the low man area and making a stand. So I got to be better in that end as well, and come out with a better defensive approach and intensity to the game and kind of set the tone where I\u2019m at in my position to help feed those guys who are battling and doing the tough things one-on-one\u2026I take that on me and just how we come out, and I\u2019ll be better coming forward and making sure that collectively as a team, we have a better approach and mindset, especially going into the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heat\u2019s Norman Powell on what needs to change<\/p>\n

While some fans are thinking about what the Heat should trade to get Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>, the team themselves have other areas to figure out on the court. The team is looking for answers on how they can stop coming out flat, which Powell mentioned happened at the start of the game and going into the third quarter.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe came out flat to start the game\u2026figured it out, got it going, bench came in, changed the game,\u201d Powell said. \u201cWhen we went zone, were able to build a lead going into half, and then we just came out flat again. I don\u2019t know if individually we got to do something different to prepare [or] collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

However they fix it, Miami needs to do it with urgency as the halfway point of the season has passed and the team needs crucial victories to get themselves out of play-in tournament and eighth seed purgatory. These sentiments would be echoed<\/a> by Powell.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely got to make a change in just how we come out to start the second half, because these games are important,\u201d Powell said. \u201cWe can\u2019t keep having games where we have an opportunity to get a good win, signature win, and we don\u2019t seize that opportunity, especially now, crunch time coming in\u2026this is where all the positioning and seedings and stuff start to take place if we want to do something in the playoffs and get out of the play-in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simone Fontecchio led the Heat with 23 points on a career-high six made three-pointers as Bam Adebayo recorded 21 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists. At any rate, Miami is 25-23 as they next take on the Chicago Bulls on Thursday and two more times in a back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Related: Erik Spoelstra urges Heat players to disregard \u2018bunch of BS\u2019 trade rumors<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Bucks rumors: Giannis Antetokounmpo trade watch includes intriguing dark horses<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heat\u2019s Norman Powell sends urgent message after another Magic loss: \u2018We can\u2019t keep making excuses\u2019 appeared first on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[1179,7,329,1200,123,144,77171,295,189,3881,121,6,558,76,3303,401,51346],"class_list":["post-567985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-heat","tag-bam-adebayo","tag-basketball","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-erik-spoelstra","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-heat","tag-making-excuses","tag-miami","tag-miami-heat","tag-miamiheat","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-norman-powell","tag-orlando-magic","tag-simone-fontecchio","tag-the-magic","tag-zachary-weinberger"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115977031179426993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}