Orlando Magic Summer League head coach D.J. Bakker had plenty of praise for his team after a 93-88 win over the Miami Heat.
The Orlando Magic got their first win of the 2026 NBA Summer League by defeating the Miami Heat on Saturday in Las Vegas, 93-88.
Saturday’s win by Orlando marked its eighth-straight over Miami dating back to the 2025-26 preseason. Afterward, Magic Summer League coach D.J. Bakker talked with the media about what he saw from his team, and he started by praising Noah Penda, who secured a critical block with less than 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter while Orlando was clinging to a three-point lead.
"Just really encouraging guys to be two-way players," Bakker said. "You know, like it's hard to just score your way into the NBA and score your way into playing time and knowing that, you know, there's two sides on each side for the basketball and, you know, having that individual pride.
"You know, I think I talked earlier on about he wants the matchups," Bakker added. "With him, he's obviously very versatile being able to switch and guard guards, switch on the bigs as we saw. But the thing I was proud of was that they had 36 points in the second half."
The Magic went into halftime down 52-46, but in the third quarter, they outscored the Heat, 33-18. Penda finished the game with 12 points, two blocks and two steals.
"I think two players combined for 34 alone in the first half," Bakker said. "Just keeping them out of transition, taking care of the ball, and then at the end of the day, if your man has the ball, having that individual pride of sitting down, being square, and then the last part of it when those guys are off the ball.
"Especially Noah," he added. "His positioning off the ball so he can be in proper shrinks and he's in help defense. So, part of it is great one-on-one defense, and then the other part of it is, like, when you're off ball, you know, stay engaged and stay alert even when your man doesn't have the ball."
The third quarter effort by Orlando was predicated on energy and effort plays, which Bakker lauded as well.
"The energy across the board was really good and you even saw it offensively with offensive rebounds," Bakker said. "So, I say the offensive rebounds, because typically when you're crashing the glass, there's energy and then you heard the bench.
"The bench started getting louder and then the players started talking more. It's one thing leads to another, you know, and so it's maintaining that and it's sustaining that for a longer period of time. But I thought we came out with the right mindset, the right approach."
