Before the Orlando Magic took the floor in their season opener against the Miami Heat, Goga Bitadze pulled Paolo Banchero aside.

The veteran big man's message to the aspiring young superstar was clear: This team did a lot of talking and planning this summer. Now it was time to do it. Now the team had to prove their season level and deliver. It was time to act.

The Orlando Magic had nearly 30 minutes in their locker room to overcome a frustrating first half. They had a four-point lead but gave up 54 points and struggled with communication issues and especially fouls to keep the Heat alive.

The Magic had a lot of cleaning to do while they waited for the Heat to finish memorializing Pat Riley as they added his name to their home floor. Orlando repeated the first half and tried to recover quickly. But the team really knew it was about one thing: better executing their defense and showing their identity.

They used this to devastating effect, going on an 18-0 run between the second and third quarters and outscoring the Heat by 21 points in the third, earning a 116-97 win in the season opener.

The Magic have been talking a lot this offseason. In Game 1 of their 2025 season, the Magic clearly backed that up by loudly expressing every part of their identity and game.

“It sets the tone for what the standard is for this team,” Banchero said after Wednesday’s game. “That's all we talked about. That's pretty much our whole mentality tonight as we need to be every night this year. The standard is set.

Everything in this league starts with the star of the team. It is no coincidence that Paolo Banchero was the one who announced loudest what his team could do and what they hoped to achieve this season. It shouldn't be a coincidence that he was the one who played the loudest.

Banchero scored 33 points with 11 rebounds and hit 12 of his 24 shots and four of his eight 3-pointers. He somehow had a plus/minus of +42, including +33 in the second half. Banchero let the team play at his pace, working to draw attention and get downhill.

After finding the formula, he became an unstoppable force. But it was the natural movement of the ball to him, the way the Orlando Magic created favorable matchups and how the team stayed on offense that stood out.

The way Banchero radiated out to others as the Magic continued to fade in the second half. The team had to follow suit and do whatever was necessary to ensure victory.

“It starts with our best players,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Wednesday’s game. “They have the composure that they understand exactly what we need to do, the value of possessions. You have to give so much credit to our coaches who understand the game plan and what works.”

Banchero was not alone. Franz Wagner scored 23 points on 10-for-16 shooting. Gary Harris came off the bench and hit 6 of 9 3-pointers for 18 points. The Magic only had 14 turnovers, including seven through three quarters.

Jalen Suggs struggled with foul trouble early in the game. But he got going in the second half and capped the early 12-0 run in the third quarter with a powerful three-pointer, which he symbolically shot off the freshly painted Pat Riley Court sign. Suggs finished the game with 11 points after playing just six minutes in the first half.

The Orlando Magic set the tone for the game with their defense in the second half. They stifled defensively, forcing seven turnovers and holding the Miami Heat to a shooting percentage of 39.5 percent. Miami couldn't find any wiggle room to break through the defense, and Orlando slowly tried to eke out the win.

Orlando's misunderstandings and especially the disorganization in transition were quickly corrected in the second half. The Magic were suddenly a liability that the Heat couldn't solve.

This is Magic Basketball. It's teeming and suffocating. It's all effort and energy. It means everyone working together and representing each other. It was amazing to watch and fun to experience. . . except the heat.

“When you can make stops like this one possession after another and they lead to run outs, threes and shots,” Banchero said after Wednesday’s win. “I personally have never played for a team like this where we can actually do that. I've played on teams that want to make stops. I don't know how many we got in a row, but it was ridiculous. “It was just natural.”

There are still a lot of pieces that need to come together. But the parts that magic has are still plenty. And they were ready to make some noise.

The Orlando Magic have been talking about this all offseason. They said they wanted to do this.

They made it after last year's breakout season. You checked this box. And they did much more.

By defeating the Miami Heat, they made it clear that they intended to do so and that they had a handle on their closest geographical and divisional rivals. They did exactly what they said they would do.

“We wanted to get off to a good start,” Gary Harris said after Wednesday’s win. “We knew it would be a challenge. We wanted to step forward and make a statement. We played together, supported each other in defense and increased the tempo in attack. We were able to block shots and had a lot of fun tonight.”

The Magic have learned many lessons together over the past three years. They learned and implemented what happened last year when they got off to a slow start and were 5-20 before finishing the season. They started strong last year.

After last year, they promised to play with more intensity and focus and not give away games in order to prepare for a stronger playoff position.

This is just the first game. There's still a long way to go. But the Magic have delivered on all of those promises. They often did it loudly and emphatically against one of their main competitors.

That evening they put into action the conversation they had been having all summer. And now they know they have to move on.