Heat collapse in second half to Anthony Edwards and the Wolves

Anthony Edwards and the Wolves were too much for the Heat to handle, as Miami drops their second game in four days to Minnesota.
(Photo via Miami Heat/X)

The Miami Heat have dropped their second straight game to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the span of four days. Despite a strong start—and Tyler Herro’s return— the Heat suffer their largest defeat of the season with a final score of 122-94.

Miami’s offense looked encouraging to begin the game, coming out to a 29-27 first quarter advantage. However, they went completely cold as the game went on. Minnesota had a dominant 61-40 second half advantage. This was led by Anthony Edwards’s game-high 26 points on 45% shooting and 5 of 8 from 3-point range. Rudy Gobert also feasted on the glass, as the Wolves’ big man submitted a dominant 13 points and 17 rebounds double-double.

For the Heat, Norman Powell was the lone 20+ point scorer— which was the same notion in the previous Timberwolves loss this past weekend. Virtually nobody else showed up for Miami offensively.

Outside of Powell, the remaining starters of Davion Mitchell, Andrew Wiggins, Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware combined for an atrocious 11 of 42 shooting. That figure is good for just 26%.

The Heat have now lost five of their last six matchups versus the Timberwolves.

After a 13-game absence, Tyler Herro recorded 17 points, 9 boards and 3 assists on 7 of 15 from the field in his 29 minutes in a bench role. Coach Erik Spoelstra opted to ease Herro back into game action and be a focal point of the second unit. He had the second-worst plus-minus on the team, as the Wolves outscored the Heat by 25 points in Herro’s minutes. It’s unclear if the former All-Star will remain coming off the bench moving forward.

Nikola Jovic, who also received an extended bench role with 26 minutes, struggled heavily. He looked out of control at points with the ball in his hands. He added just 9 points with three turnovers. Spoelstra went with mainly a three-man bench rotation with Herro, Jovic and Pelle Larsson. Dru Smith received just six minutes of playing time. Jaime Jaquez Jr. was unable to suit up after tweaking his ankle in the previous game.

Miami shot just 36% overall as a team to the Wolves 45%, along with 32% on 12 of 37 from 3-point range. The inefficient offense was a clear issue. However, Minnesota’s physicality in beating them up down low was an even bigger problem. The Timberwolves punished the Heat with 62 paint points and a 64-50 rebounding advantage. This was courtesy of Gobert’s elite efforts on the glass, as mentioned.

The double big lineup with Adebayo and Ware were nonexistent on both ends of the floor in this matchup.

A clear discouraging setback after Miami seemed to finally stack some wins together again. Instead they will lose their second out of the last three games and fall to a 20-17 record. Their next opportunity to bounce back again will be Thursday against the Chicago Bulls.

Heat collapse in second half to Anthony Edwards and the Wolves

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