Spent magic rushes back from 25; The Heat was held at 8 in the 4th

A lead of at least 22 points with twelve minutes left means victory in the NBA. Over the past five years, including the playoffs, there have been 796 instances of a team having such a lead early in the fourth quarter.

Their record: 796-0.

Their current record: 796-1.

The Orlando Magic put together a rally they will surely remember, and the Miami Heat had a collapse they certainly won’t soon forget. The Magic outscored the Heat 37-8 in the fourth quarter to claim an improbable 121-114 victory on Saturday night. They won a game in which they trailed by 25 in the first half and were up 22 with a quarter to go.

“You can’t really explain it,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “I’ve never seen that before. That’s something I’ve never seen in my years in the league, the ability to stick with it despite all the circumstances that started the game.”

Heat captain Bam Adebayo was more succinct.

“We relaxed because we were on top,” Adebayo said. “I think that’s the karma of the game.”

The Magic played without Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs and Gary Harris – and lost Moritz Wagner in the first quarter to a potentially serious knee injury.

Even though they were exhausted, they somehow still managed the greatest comeback in franchise history.

“This is the modern NBA now, right? The 20-point lead is not what it was a decade ago and you have to hold on until the end,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Some of the numbers were simply astounding:

– Orlando’s 29-point fourth quarter lead was the largest in any game since Phoenix topped New Orleans by 29 points on Feb. 19, 2021.

— Miami’s eight points in the fourth quarter were the fewest any team has scored in a quarter this season.

– The last time Orlando trailed by 25 points in a game and won was in 1989.

“It’s a group that just keeps fighting,” Mosley said.

The last time a team trailed by 22 or more entering the fourth quarter and won was on December 22, 2019, when the Toronto Raptors – down 30 points at one point, 23 points with 12 minutes left – beat the Dallas Mavericks by 110 -107.

It was statistically bizarre. The Heat had the best-scoring quarter of the season (40 in the first), the best-scoring half of the season (76 in the first), the worst-scoring quarter of the season (8 in the fourth), and the worst-scoring half of the season (38 in the second) – all on the same night.

In the fourth quarter, Orlando shot 14 for 23 – and Miami shot 2 for 18. Cole Anthony had 13 points in the final quarter for the Magic and finished the game with 35 points, eight rebounds and nine assists off the bench.

And that was another statistical oddity: Such a statistic for someone off the bench had only happened once since 1982 – Stephen Curry had 40 points, eight rebounds and nine assists for Golden State in a playoff game in 2016 , because he was not in the starting line-up in this game. He had to sit out due to a knee injury.

“I’m so happy for this team, man,” Anthony said.