MIAMI — Bam Adebayo summed it up in two words.
“It’s embarrassing,” the eighth-year center said of the Miami Heat’s 116-97 season-opening loss Wednesday night to the Orlando Magic.
And humbling.
And concerning.
And troubling.
As a matter of perspective, it was the Heat’s worst season-opening loss in 18 years , the fifth-worst loss on opening night in the franchise’s 37 seasons.
“I mean,” Adebayo said, “we played bad. It’s not really anything to that. That’s as simple as I can make it.”
As in simply awful in a game where the deficit reached 32 , at one point creating question about whether it would be the team’s all-time worst opening loss.
That remains the 108-66 home humiliation at the hands of the Chicago Bulls in 2006, on a night the Heat received their championship rings in the wake of the franchise’s first title.
This, too, was a celebratory night of sorts, with the halftime dedication of the Kaseya Court in honor of the 30 years of service to the franchise by Heat President Pat Riley.
“It’s embarrassing, especially on a night like this, for the Godfather Riley,” Adebayo said.
From that 42-point opening loss in 2006, the Heat went on to make the playoffs, as they also did after a 20-point loss to the Magic in their 1993 opening loss.
That had the Heat moving on with forward-thinking spin, with a Saturday road game up next against the Charlotte Hornets, a team that stunned the Houston Rockets in that Wednesday night opener.
“We’ll be better,” guard Tyler Herro said. “I feel like we’re doing the right thing. Just got to continue to build good habits. It’s the first game of the season. Obviously no one’s going 82-0.”
But the habits built during a 4-1 preseason that featured ball-hawking defense, ball movement to layups or 3-pointers, pace and space, were not there Wednesday night, particularly in the second half, when the Heat were outscored 39-18 in the decisive third quarter.
“We kind of just fell apart in the second half on both sides of the floor,” Herro said. “When the offense started to kind of go in the wrong direction, it felt like our intensity and our attention to detail kind of just went out the window. That can’t happen.”
In a building that should have been energized by the Riley celebration, with the likes of Dwyane Wade, Goran Dragic and Jamal Mashburn in attendance, it was a night that went from bad to worse.
“I think we kind of took ourselves out of it,” forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “As a whole, we were getting away from some of the things that we were used to doing this preseason and training camp, and we’ve got to get back to that.
“Getting our defense to turn into our offense, it starts there. Without that, our offense isn’t going to be what it is.”
Adebayo stopped short of saying the Heat got away from what had been built in camp, polished in the preseason.
“I wouldn’t say we got away from it,” he said. “I feel like it looked worse than what it was because the ball wasn’t going in. So it’s going to look like we stopped doing what we’re supposed to do. But I just felt like because we missed shots, we shot 39 percent from the field, you’re going to think we got away from it, but we just missed shots.”
To coach Erik Spoelstra, it wasn’t that simple.
“Offensively, we have to trust some of the things that we’ve been working on in preseason,” he said. “It’s looked a lot different than this.
“The activity level wasn’t there. You don’t need stats to see it, but we feel it when we’re active. It might not lead to steals, but what we’ve felt the last three weeks, we did not feel that.”
Not even close.
“We didn’t play well at all,” guard Terry Rozier said, “But we move on. There’s 81 more games. So just be ready for it, turn this thing around.”
Exactly, Adebayo said.
“For us,” he said, “it’s short-term memory. I know it’s the beginning of the season, but we don’t want to create this as a getting-use-to thing. For us, it’s win or misery.”
Worst Heat opening losses
Year, opponent, score, gap, season result
2006, Bulls, 108-66, 42, 44-38*
1993, Magic, 116-96, 20, 42-40*
1988, Clippers, 111-91, 20, 15-67
1989, Nets, 110-90, 20, 18-64
2024, Magic, 116-97, 19, – – –
2003, 76ers, 890-74, 15, 42-40*
1998, Pistons, 95-81, 14, 33-17*
2002, Magic, 100-86, 14, 25-57
1994, Jazz, 119-108, 11, 32-50
2007, Pistons, 91-80, 11, 15-67
1992, Magic, 110-100, 10, 36-46
* Made playoffs.
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