After carrying the load offensively all night for a shorthanded Orlando Magic squad, the only thing Jalen Suggs could do was watch Tyler Herro as he sunk the game-winning shot for the Miami Heat to cap off a thriller from the Kaseya Center Thursday night.

The former Kentucky star spoiled a big night from the Gonzaga standout. Suggs finished with a game-high 29 points on 10-of-22 shooting from the field, but it wasn’t enough as the Heat stormed back in the second half to beat the Magic, 89-88, on a 19-foot jumper in the final seconds from Herro.

“Sometimes you’ve just gotta tip your cap,” Suggs said of Herro’s go-ahead basket. “Even the last possession, I thought TQ [Trevelin Queen] played great defense, good contest, tough shot. So sometimes you’ve just gotta give the guy some props.”

The Magic leaned heavily on its 6-foot-5 guard from start to finish — as has been the case lately without Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner in the lineup due to injury. Suggs came into Thursday averaging 18.4 points in 29.5 minutes over his last five contests. The Heat had a track record of stifling No. 1 options as of late, though that certainly wasn’t the case when trying to slow the Magic’s go-to guy. 

Suggs and company scored the first 14 points of the night and took a commanding 22-5 lead after the former fifth-overall pick knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers in the first quarter. 

The Heat chipped into the Magic’s lead heading into the second quarter before Suggs checked back in for the final minutes of the first half. He helped push the lead back to 14 points with a midrange jumper to make it 40-26, followed later by a 23-foot jumper. With just over a minute remaining, Suggs connected with Goga Bitadze on an alley-oop to make it 50-40 in favor of the Magic.

Orlando led by 10 going into the fourth quarter before the Heat scored six points in a 45-second span to make it 71-67 with 11:14 to play in regulation. Alec Burks went 3-for-3 at the charity stripe upon drawing a foul from Anthony Black while shooting from long distance. Burks connected on his next try from 25 feet on the ensuing possession. 

After former UCLA standout Jaime Jaquez Jr. made it a 1-point game, Burks put the Heat out in front 77-76 with 7:42 left. Suggs scored four points in a row to tie things at 80 apiece, but from there it was all Miami down the stretch. 

Herro finished with a team-high 20 points. Jaquez Jr. had 15 points while Burks and Terry Rozier combined to score 31 points off the bench for the Heat (15-13).

Tristan da Silva tallied 18 points and Bitadze recorded a 10-point, 14-rebound double-double but the Magic (19-13) suffered a loss for the fourth time in its last six contests. 

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Jim Larranaga stepped down as Miami men’s basketball head coach on Thursday, ending a 14-year stint with the Hurricanes. The 75-year-old head coach is nearly two years removed from bringing the Hurricanes to their first Final Four appearance.

Miami has lost eight of its last nine games, touting a 4-8 record to open the season. Larranaga’s abrupt, mid-season decision surprised many. On3’s Joe Tipton reported that players found out the news on social media.

Larranaga’s departure triggers the 30-day transfer portal window for Miami players. NCAA rules allow athletes on a team with a coaching change to enter the portal the day after the change. In this case, Miami athletes can start entering Friday.

According to the NCAA, an athlete who transfers after enrolling at a school cannot transfer during that same year and compete for a new school. Grad students could transfer if they don’t play in any games this fall and be eligible in the spring.

The former Bowling Green and George Mason head coach cited NIL as part of the reason for his retirement.

“At this point, after 53 years, I just didn’t feel that I could successfully navigate this whole new world that I was dealing with because my conversations were ridiculous with an agent saying to me, ‘Well, you can get involved [with a prospective player] if you’re willing to go to $1.1 million,’ and that would be the norm,” he said at a news conference on Thursday.

The college basketball transfer portal is scheduled for 30 days during the spring of the 2024-25 academic year. According to the NCAA, the portal opens for business on Monday, March 24, and closes on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. The national championship game will be played on April 7 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Athletes would still be given a 30-day window to transfer after a head coach’s departure.

The college basketball transfer portal is starting to mirror the NBA’s free agency. Last spring alone, 1,962 Division I players tested the portal waters. According to college basketball analytics expert Evan Miyakawa, for the first time in history, more than half of the points scored in Division I men’s college basketball will be scored by players recruited through the transfer portal, not from high school in 2024-25.

Despite not playing on Christmas Day, the Miami Heat were among the hottest topics.

An ESPN report surfaced before the first game of Butler preferring a trade before the deadline than waiting until the offseason. It quickly became front-page news.

While some feel the Heat should react sooner than later, Ethan Skolnick of Five Reasons Sports suggests there is no rush.

Here’s what Skolnick said on his podcast, “Even with what happened yesterday, even with the Shams report, because they have received no offer to this point, because they are comfortable taking this into the offseason and even losing Jimmy for a small asset in a sign-and-trade or even for nothing except for the flexibility under the apron and other cap mechanics that Jimmy Butler’s contract for next year and in the future, because if he opts in, they’ve got to pay him next year. even if they just get that flexibility with his money going away, they are, at least from what they’re putting out there, OK with that. All of that leads to this. What I was told you yesterday from the Miami, “we feel no pressure to do anything.”‘

Skolnick relayed the Heat are being patient because they can. No need to move too fast. The trade deadline is still a month away.

“So, in other words, all of this noise, the Shams that ruined Christmas and Hannukah and a few other holidays that people were celebrating yesterday, it did not move the Heat,” Skolnick said.

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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