How the Miami Heat were flattened by the Orlando Magic

The Miami Heat found themselves losing down the stretch of another crunch-time game against their state-side rivals, the Orlando Magic.

Here's what went right and what went wrong for the Heat:

Free throws/Possession battle: The Magic are the second highest-volume free throw team in the league while simultaneously being one of the highest-volume fouling teams in the league. The battleground at the stripe was one where the Heat needed to be precise.

In a game where they lost by one point, the Heat missing nine free throws was particularly damaging. Although it was slightly mitigated by the Magic missing six of their own free throws, the Heat needed these much more since the Magic put up 12 more shot attempts than them and were missing from everywhere on the court other than their corner threes.

Speaking of, the Magic were able to achieve this, in part, by taking advantage of their own misses, a big part of their blueprint as the eighth-best offensive rebounding team. The Heat actually held them to a subpar offensive rebound percentage in this one, but the Magic finished the game with 12 second chance points to the Heat's three, after grabbing seven offensive rebounds to the Heat's four.

Another aspect of the game the Magic excel at is defense. They currently have the sixth-best overall defensive rating, the seventh-best transition defensive rating and also turn opposing teams over at the sixth-highest rate in the league.

The Heat finished this one with 15 turnovers, which included some sloppily-thrown passes, as well as a putrid 1.53 assist-to-turnover ratio, which would rank as the third-worst in the league when comparing to season stats. This especially hurt with the Heat not turning the Magic over, who ended up with an assist-to-turnover ratio that would lead the league, by far.

Additionally, the Heat were not able to take advantage in transition, where they ran out at a 77th percentile frequency but finished with an eighth percentile offensive rating there.

When you put it all together, this was simply not a winning recipe for the Heat.

2nd half rollercoaster: After having gone up by three at halftime, the Heat could not buy a bucket in the third quarter, where they finished with a 68 offensive rating after making just 28 percent of their shots. Meanwhile, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs were cooking to the tune of 25 combined points on 62.5 percent shooting.

The fourth quarter flipped for the Heat, where they put up a 130 offensive rating to the Magic's 95. Bam Adebayo had a strong scoring game through the first three, (24 points on nine-of-14 shooting), but the fourth quarter standouts were Norman Powell and Jaime Jaquez Jr., who combined for 17 points on eight-of-11 shooting.

It was an entertaining game going down the wire, which ended up with the Heat having a couple of chances to win the game. On the first, Powell got up a rushed shot attempt that had little-to-no chance of going down.

On the second and final chance, after having been intentionally fouled, which brought down the clock by a couple seconds in the process, the Heat got the ball in to Adebayo, who thought he was getting an isolation possession against Wendell Carter Jr.

The problem was Powell went in for a hand-off, which Suggs defended perfectly. This crowded Adebayo's space, clearly threw him off and made him hesitate. Before they knew it, the buzzer had sounded and the game was over, with no shot having been attempted.

Big Ball Issues: Although many seem to think it is the solution to all their problems, the Heat's double big looks have not been very effective this season. In lineups where Adebayo and Kel'el Ware are on the floor together, the Heat have been outscored by 9.41 points per 100 possessions, giving up a very bad 118 defensive rating with a horrific 109 offensive rating.

In this game, the Heat were outscored by 18 when Ware was on the floor, 14 when both him and Adebayo were on the court together. When Ware was playing, the Heat allowed 125 points per 100 possessions. When he wasn't, the Magic scored just 83.7 points per 100 possessions.

"That starting group was a little bit uneven tonight. We got to continue to work on that, I just want to see that group, when we play bigger, for it to be a plus, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the loss. "We have some work to do there. Should be a very defensive group but that's a group that hasn't been able to defend so far and we have to work on that."

The Heat need to figure out this look and give it more reps. They have been much more effective with Andrew Wiggins playing next to Adebayo, which is fine and dandy, but there was an allure to the idea of the Heat being able to trot out smaller and bigger looks, depending on matchups.

For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out Off The Floor.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at Twitter: @tropicalblanket

How the Miami Heat were flattened by the Orlando Magic

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For more Miami Heat information and conversation, check out Off The Floor.

Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at Twitter: @tropicalblanket