Miami Heat players react to disappointing effort on Pat Riley’s special night

Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo combined for 12 points on 2-of-13 shooting in the Miami Heat’s 116-97 loss to the Orlando Magic in the season opener on Wednesday.

Adebayo said the score was not representative of how the Heat played. He thought the offense played well enough to win, but the shots weren’t falling.

“We played poorly. It looked worse than it was because the ball wasn’t going in,” Adebayo said. “We shot 38 percent from the field and narrowly missed shots. The activity just calmed down. For us, it’s about making that our identity first and caring about the defense later.”

The Heat had a very promising preseason after going 4-1.

“We’re going to get better,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Offensively, we have to trust some things we worked on in the preseason. We have to trust what we do even more.”

On a night where the Heat dedicated the floor to team president Pat Riley, they were overwhelmed 57-41.

“There were some really good moments in the first half,” Spoelstra said. “Second chance opportunities kept their spirits alive and gave them new momentum.”

Spoelstra also said the Heat were not active.

“The activity level wasn’t there. We weren’t active,” Spoelstra said. “What we felt the last three weeks, we didn’t feel tonight.”

Here’s what other Heat players had to say about the loss:

Tyler Herro: “I thought in the first half the ball was moving and we were hard to defend. Where we felt like we were doing the right thing in the first half, we weren’t doing the right thing in the second “We have to think about the game on another level and think about a forward pass,” Herro said. “We’ll be better. We think we’re doing the right thing. We need to get into good habits. Nobody’s going 82-0 anyway.”

Terry Rozier: We let their offense dictate our defense. We have to play better and it starts with me. “We didn’t play well, but we’re moving on. We have 81 games left and another Saturday.”

Scott Salomon is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI. He can be contacted at [email protected].

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