Dec 21, 2024, 11:25 PM ET
A lead of at least 22 points with 12 minutes left means victory in the NBA. Over the last five years, including playoffs, there had been 796 instances of a team having such a lead entering the fourth quarter.
Their record: 796-0.
Their record now: 796-1.
The Orlando Magic pulled off a rally they’ll surely remember, and the Miami Heat had a collapse they surely won’t soon forget. The Magic outscored the Heat 37-8 in the fourth quarter to pull off an improbable 121-114 victory on Saturday night, winning a game in which they trailed by 25 in the first half and were down 22 with one quarter remaining.
“You can’t really explain that,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “That’s something I haven’t seen. I have not seen that ever in my years in the league, the ability to stay with it despite all of the circumstances that started in the beginning of the game.”
Heat captain Bam Adebayo was more succinct.
“We relaxed because we were up,” Adebayo said. “I feel like that’s the karma of the game.”
The Magic were playing without Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs and Gary Harris — and lost Moritz Wagner to what may be a serious knee injury in the first quarter.
Depleted, they somehow still tied the biggest comeback in franchise history.
“This is the modern NBA right now, right? The 20-point lead is not what it was a decade ago and you have to finish all the way through,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Some of the numbers were just baffling:
– Orlando’s 29-point margin in the fourth quarter was the biggest in any game since Phoenix outscored New Orleans by 29 on Feb. 19, 2021.
– Miami’s eight points in the fourth quarter were the fewest by any team in any quarter this season.
– The last time Orlando trailed by 25 in a game and won was 1989.
“It’s a group that just continues to fight,” Mosley said.
The last time a team trailed by 22 or more entering the fourth quarter and won was Dec. 22, 2019, when the Toronto Raptors — down by 30 at one point, down by 23 with 12 minutes left — beat the Dallas Mavericks 110-107.
It was statistically bizarre. The Heat had their best-scoring quarter of the season (40 in the first), best-scoring half of the season (76 in the first), worst-scoring quarter of the season (8 in the fourth) and worst-scoring half of the season (38 in the second) — all in the same night.
The fourth quarter saw Orlando shoot 14 for 23 — and Miami shoot 2 for 18. Cole Anthony had 13 points in the final quarter for the Magic, finishing with 35 points, eight rebounds and nine assists off the bench.
And that was another statistical oddity: Such a stat line for someone off the bench had happened only once since 1982 — Stephen Curry had 40 points, eight rebounds and nine assists for Golden State in a playoff game in 2016, not starting that game because he had been sidelined by a sprained knee.
“I’m so happy for this team, man,” Anthony said.
