The Minnesota Timberwolves snapped the Miami Heat’s four-game win streak Saturday evening with a 125-115 inside Kaseya Center.
Trailing by only four — 90-86 — heading into the final quarter, Minnesota raced out to a 19-4 run in the opening 4:32, one that was too insurmountable for the Heat to overcome.
Miami’s end of the bench conjured together a mini 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 10 with under four minutes left. But they were silenced by Anthony Edwards’ 10th-and-final bucket of the game.
Edwards paved the way for the Timberwolves, who improved to 22-13, including 4-1 in their last five against Miami. Edwards tallied 33 points on 10-of-19 shooting with five assists in 37 minutes. Julius Randle (23 PTS, 10 REB) and Naz Reid were two other standouts (29 PTS), out dueling Miami’s big man duo, Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware.
Norman Powell tallied a Heat-high 21 points on 6-of-13 shooting; Davion Mitchell had 14 points and six assists; Bam Adebayo had 12 points and nine rebounds; Nikola Jović and Kel’el Ware finished with 14 and 12 points, respectively.
The Heat drop to 19-16 through 35 games. As a result, they are, once again, tied with the Orlando Magic for the No. 7 seed in the East.
Evidently, Miami struggled in the half court, scoring just 88.5 points per 100 possessions (24th percentile) in those situations. It dealt with injuries to Powell — who returned in the second quarter — and Jaime Jaquez Jr., who did not play in the second half. But the Heat committed 19 turnovers and shot 47.1 percent from the floor.
While the Timberwolves shot just 28.9 percent (11-38) from beyond the arc, they scored 58 points in the paint, including 36 in the second half 50 at the rim alone. Miami didn’t have any answer for Minnesota’s dribble penetration all night.
The Heat will have to wash away this 10-point loss quickly. They host the New Orleans Pelicans on the second night of a back-to-back Sunday at 6:00 p.m. EST.
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I’m not sure why but there has been a decided drop off in participation on this site. Same thing with the game thread. Normally, there would be fifteen to twenty posts, each sports guru opining about the game last night, which was against a very good opponent at full strength. Maybe people are still partying around the holidays.
We also lost an important player in our rotation, which definitely impacted the results.
Get well Jaime. Go Heat!
Saturday nights alright for fighting 30 .Maybe cause the teams not that great?As long as u and rc are posting im good.JJJ please get well.When your shooting close to 60% and your not a center you are playing at all star level.Congrats to that jjj.Now we need niko playing like that.If niko can take the next step that would really really help.Getting greek is the ultimate goal but the chances of milw letting him go are zero.They should just add on to the team.Turner portis greek they got the bigs covered.Dame flamed out there but who would not want to play with greek.Unless he wants out only way milw lets him go. .
If Niko was playing up to snuff and Herro was dropping 20+ off the bench and Heat could get DeRozan for Rozier to come in alongside Jaquez, Jovic and Herro we might just have something. That’s a lot of points for a second unit. By far the best in the NBA.
I agree with you and H here. It seems doubtful from all info I am seeing, that Greek is traded. It’s more likely the Bucks will add, not subtract, at the deadline. We should be looking to add one or 2 pieces. I like the idea of DeRozan and another big. By the way, I’ve also liked what I’ve seen from Gardner. Young also looks okay, and I would like to see what Vlad can provide.
Yes, I have adjusted upwards my opinions on both JJJ and Niko. JJJ keeps improving, as he seems even better than he was just ten games ago. But, he also needs to be in top physical condition and I am concerned that any injury will affect his level of play because his game is very physical. So, best case scenario, he might need to miss a few games and then it may take a couple more to get him to playing at the level he was playing against Detroit. I am now also getting more comfortable seeing Niko in there, as he doesn’t seem overmatched anymore. I think he is making better choices, doing more of the things he is good at and not over-reaching. And he is showing some toughness that wasn’t as evident before. Those are both good things. On the other hand, Antman, Randle and Reid, those are the kind of players that really challenge our line up.
I almost stopped posting because I got so frustrated by the things I complained about earlier and I still believe those things are a problem. But, having been able to voice those concerns openly and fully really seems to have made me feel better. Now, I can watch the team through its ups and downs and accept them as they are, trying to enjoy the good and accepting the limitations more.
I still appreciate all the good observations you and everyone else on this site provide.
Please forgive my redundancy, but patience really is a virtue. It doesn’t make sense to me to write off a very young player. Jovic has been mostly better, sometimes much better, the last 5 games. Powell has been reminding him that he is 6 feet 10 inches! It seems to finally be sinking in. We should also not be writing off Kas.
Let me start by saying that everyone here has a right to their opinion. But there is no doubt that some have left the site due to the barrage of negativity that sometimes exists here, especially when things aren’t going well. I’m not talking about this season, but over the last few. Perhaps it’s just ‘if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen’. I will continue to agree and disagree with folks, remain objective, offer facts to support a position, and look forward to more development by my favorite team.
Yes, you seem to be able to see the wider perspective well. Sometimes players perform well in practice, but not in games, and the coaches have to keep trying them out and hope it translates. That period of a young players career can be difficult to watch. And even though every player goes thru it, some take a lot longer than others. And that is why patience is a virtue, at least most of the time.