MIAMI (AP) — Aaron Gordon scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Nikola Vucevic finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds and the Orlando Magic beat the Miami Heat 105-90 on Tuesday night.
Terrence Ross added 19 off the bench for the Magic, who were 14 for 28 from 3-point range. Evan Fournier scored 13 and DJ Augustin had 11 for Orlando.
Justise Winslow scored 14 for Miami, which had won two straight — and still hasn’t had a three-game winning streak this season. Kelly Olynyk scored 13, Hassan Whiteside had 12 and Dwyane Wade and James Johnson each added 11 for the Heat.
Whiteside left the Heat bench with 40.5 seconds left and walked to the locker room. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter, and has been unhappy when that’s occurred in the past.
“Probably extremely upset, like we all are right now,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, after his team dropped to 9-14.
Lulls have doomed Miami all season, and a third-quarter one was the difference.
The Magic were 1-10 this season in games in which they weren’t winning at halftime, but outscored the Heat 30-12 in the third quarter to grab control. It was Miami’s lowest-scoring quarter of the season — one point less than its opening quarter against Brooklyn on Nov. 20 — and the worst quarter the Heat had against Orlando since an 11-point third on Feb. 8, 2012.
“It’s our inability to sustain,” Spoelstra said. “That’s it. … There’s a flagrant inconsistency that we keep bumping into.”
Orlando held the Heat to 24 percent shooting in the third (5-21) and the Magic didn’t commit a turnover in the period.
Olynyk made three 3-pointers in a span of less than 90 seconds to get Miami within six early in the fourth, and Winslow connected on another 3 to cut Orlando’s lead to 88-82 with 4:06 left. But the Magic scored the next five, and held on from there.
TIP-INS
Magic: Orlando is 2-0 against the Heat this season and 7-2 in the last nine meetings. … The Magic have posted three quarters with a score differential of plus-18 or better this season — and all have been on the road. They outscored New York by 20 in a first quarter, Golden State by 18 in a second quarter, and outscored Miami by 18 in the third quarter of this one.
Heat: Rodney McGruder played, two days after leaving Miami’s win over Utah with a sprained ankle. Tyler Johnson also returned after missing six games with a hamstring strain. Goran Dragic (knee), Derrick Jones Jr. (hamstring) and Dion Waiters (ankle rehab) remained sidelined. … It was Miami’s last home game until Dec. 20, with a six-game trip to Western Conference venues starting Friday.
SOUTHEAST WOES
Orlando is now atop the Southeast Division at 12-12. The five teams in Southeast are a combined 47-71 this season, and that winning percentage of .398 is even worse than the league-worst .420 clip (172-238) that Miami, Orlando, Washington, Atlanta and Charlotte combined for last season.
MO’ WADE BLOCKS
Wade added another 7-footer to his blocked-shot collection, when he rejected Orlando rookie Mo Bamba at the rim in the fourth quarter. No player who stands 6-foot-4 or less has more blocks in their career than Wade, who has gotten at least 47 blocks against 7-footers in his career — a list that includes Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Brook Lopez, Pau Gasol and now Bamba.
UP NEXT
Magic: Host Denver on Wednesday.
Heat: Visit Phoenix on Friday.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.