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Magic makes wrong choice

By JAMAL THALJI

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 28, 2001

ORLANDO -- Magic coach Doc Rivers called a timeout in the second half of Saturday's close game with Miami and delivered a Nostradamus-like prediction:

"I told the guys this game is going one way or the other," Rivers said. "Now, Miami is thrilled to death because this is their type of game, an ugly, slow death. Now we have to make a choice -- are we going to continue to let that happen, or are we going to resist?"

Nope. An ugly, slow death it was.

Miami broke the game open in the fourth quarter and pounded Orlando into submission 81-59. It was the Heat's 11th victory in its past 14 meetings with the Magic, an ugly Eastern Conference win broadcast regionally by NBC but better-suited for late-night cable.

"That was a horrible game for us and a great game for Miami," Rivers said.

Heat coach Pat Riley watched his team display the physical virtues he so enjoys: hot shooting, gritty defense and a generous heaping of elbows.

Also, for the sixth consecutive game Miami put together a solid fourth quarter, outscoring Orlando 29-9. With 8:42 left, the Heat buried the Magic with a 26-5 run. That sent the TD Waterhouse Centre crowd of 16,286 to the exits.

Riley also delivered a second-half prediction to his team. He told it that just a few points would be needed to break either side. Like Rivers, he was right.

"We had to play three minutes of basketball," he said. "I said to them, the first team that gets seven or eight points ahead is going to deflate the other team because both teams were fighting uphill the whole game."

The Magic could do little right late. It hit 3 of 16 three-point attempts and made 18 turnovers that the Heat converted into 16 points.

Tracy McGrady led Orlando with 19 points and 15 rebounds, his ninth double double of the season. But the league's newest All-Star was the only Orlando player to reach double figures in scoring, shot 7-of-27, missed his last five shots and didn't score in the last 11:06.

McGrady said his team just ran out of fight.

"We hit them; they'd hit us. It was going back and forth," he said. "But in the second half they just hit us, and we stopped fighting."

Both teams looked inept offensively early, yet the Magic took a nine point lead with 5:11 left in the second quarter off McGrady's three. But the Heat narrowed its deficit to three at the half and kept chipping away.

Miami shot 29.4 percent in the third but raised that to 36.8 in the fourth. Brian Grant led the Heat with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Eddie Jones had 15 points.

The Magic couldn't even make history. Orlando shot a horrid 23-of-80, 28.7 percent, which just missed the all-time franchise low of 28.6 set last season. The team also missed the all-time lowest offensive output by two points. The record is 57 against Cleveland in 1996. The Magic did make history by scoring a franchise-low 21 second-half points and tying an NBA record.

"We wanted to give you a preview of the Super Bowl," Rivers said.

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