MIAMI – As the Miami Heat saw the return of Norman Powell and Tyler Herro, it wasn't enough to get past the Orlando Magic on Saturday night, losing 121-117. With the Heat having major momentum after Bam Adebayo scored a historic 83 points on Tuesday and winning seven straight games on Thursday, the streak was snapped, though there was one instance that had members of the team irate.

Though Miami struggled in the first half, with Orlando building up a 22-point lead, the team would get back to its strengths on both sides of the ball in the second half, making it a close game with under a minute left in the contest. A game-changing moment was when the Heat were down four points with 36.6 seconds left in the game as Pelle Larsson was inbounding the ball.

Larsson wouldn't beat the referee's whistle, with Miami called for a five-second violation, leading to the team being visibly upset by the decision.

The team and the officiating crew had been going at it all night, with Adebayo having a staunch message, calling out the referees that “altered” the game.

“For the call, felt like it was fast. That's what's frustrating about it, because we get fined if we say something about it,” Adebayo said to ClutchPoints. “But that altered the game. And when you alter the game, you should have to stand on that.”

“Then on the other side, I felt like they had a five-second call that wasn't called. Altered the game,” Adebayo continued. “They affect the game in a way where sometimes it does have an effect, and they get to go home and sleep peacefully, and we're up here talking about a call that you feel like should have been called or not called.”

Heat's Norman Powell says controversial call by the referees was “BS”

Miami Heat guard Norman Powell (24) drives to the basket as Orlando Magic forward Jamal Cain (8) defends during the second half at Kaseya Center.
Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

Heat players made their voices heard about the five-second violation, though they all mentioned how the team suffered in the first half, especially when allowing the Magic to score 41 points, shooting close to 70 percent from the field, in the first quarter. Still, the violation was a stifling call that took the momentum away from Miami, as though the call could be considered a toss-up; many on the Heat believe it was decided too fast.

Star Norman Powell spoke openly about his displeasure with the call, as scoring 20 points off the bench in his return after missing seven games with a groin strain, he would say to ClutchPoints that the five-second violation was “BS.”

“It was too fast that we couldn't even get through our first two options before they called a five-second violation,” Powell said. “And late game, we got them trying to get the ball in, they allowed them to call timeout when it's clearly longer than what our five-second call was. So, just frustrated when trying to figure out how we can steal the game with a steal on the inbounds.”

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Another player who returned from an injury, this time missing two contests from quadriceps soreness, was Tyler Herro. Finishing the game with 10 points on a frustrating shooting night, he agreed it was a fast call, but says that one that the team will “live with.”

“I don't think it was five seconds. That was a quick five,” Herro said. “Obviously, we crawled back and put ourselves in a position to be able to cut it to four, cut into three, cut into one-possession game. But we can't put ourselves in that position.”

Erik Spoelstra on the Heat's self-inflicted wounds

With the Heat coming off an inspiring win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday, the loss against the Magic hurts for many reasons, with the main one being that Miami was unable to beat Orlando in the five games they took them on this season. The Magic are the second team in the last three decades to beat one team (the Heat) five times in a single season.

While Spoelstra also agreed about the five-second call being fast, he would go into how the team put themselves in the position for a single call from a referee being the deciding factor.

“They said it was five seconds. I mean, I haven't gone through the mechanics of it right now, but it felt like a quick five,” Spoelstra said. “But nevertheless, we put ourselves in that situation. And defensively in the second half, we just made much more of a stand, held them to 37 percent and 50 points. It was much different than that first half.”

“We were just getting attacked off the dribble, a lot of them, in one-on-one situations, and then in a bunch of different ways, then the cuts, then the transition, we just did not set the tone for the game defensively,” Spoelstra continued. “And then the rest of the second half, we had to dig from behind. We don't want to get in the habit of allowing teams to put up 70 on us and a half without resistance.”

The loss by the Heat drops them to 38-30 on the season, putting them seventh in the Eastern Conference, with the next game coming on Tuesday against the Charlotte Hornets.