{"id":522488,"date":"2026-01-07T12:40:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/522488\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T12:40:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:40:44","slug":"an-analysis-of-tuesdays-miami-heat-minnesota-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/522488\/","title":{"rendered":"An analysis of Tuesday’s Miami Heat-Minnesota Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night\u2019s 122-94 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Now the work begins for Erik Spoelstra.<\/p>\n

\u2013 The rotation work with Tyler Herro back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Because much had changed since Herro last played on Dec. 9.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cHe\u2019s a value add. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d Spoelstra said pregame. \u201cWe need him back, and it\u2019s good to have him healthy and feeling good about his health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 And they do.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Because the halfcourt offense needs a boost.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Herro a booster.<\/p>\n

\u2013 When the Heat aren\u2019t forcing turnovers, the easy points go away.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With this one an example.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Against a quality defense.<\/p>\n

\u2013 As for mapping out minutes going forward with the rest of the rotation with Herro back, Spoelstra said, \u201cDepends on the context, depends on the player, depends on whatever the injury is coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 In this case, the toe contusion that had Herro out 13 games.<\/p>\n

\u2013 An injury that now does not appear to be limiting.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With a return to the starting lineup assuredly looming.<\/p>\n

\u2013 The question with Herro back and Jaime Jaquez Jr. close (out for a second consecutive game with an ankle sprain) is whether it could be back to the G League for first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Said Spoelstra of that possibility, \u201cAll of it\u2019s on the table. We\u2019ll just have to see when we get everybody back, what the rotation will look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 So, for now, Herro as a reserve.<\/p>\n

\u2013 But for how long?<\/p>\n

\u2013 Because all sorts of body language indicated that Herro expects otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u2013 And arguably deserves such.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Even with Herro back, the Heat again opened with a lineup of Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Bam Adebayo, Kel\u2019el Ware and Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n

\u2013 The previous time Herro played and did not start was April 4, 2024 in a victory in Indiana. That instance was the second consecutive game off the bench after returning from nearly two months off with a hyperextended knee.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With all three Heat two-way players now back on the Heat roster, Vlad Goldin and Jahmir Young were inactive.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0 Leaving Myron Gardner as the lone active two-way player.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Herro entered in the Heat\u2019s first substitution, along with Nikola Jovic.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Pelle Larsson followed shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With Dru Smith making it nine deep for the Heat.<\/p>\n

\u2013 That shuffled first-round pick Jakucionis out of the mix.<\/p>\n

\u2013 As well as Simone Fontecchio.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Keshad Johnson was back available for the Heat after extended playing time in the G League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cHe\u2019s getting a lot of development here and great mentorship from the vets,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cBut his continued development on the court is important as well. He played well there and just continues to grow and improve in a lot of different aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Powell said going in that the challenge of the Timberwolves was clear, having\u00a0lost on Saturday to Minnesota in Miami<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cThey do a great job of controlling the paint defensively and offensively, attacking, getting downhill,\u201d he said. \u201cSo having the mindset that it\u2019s going to be a physical game, you know, that we\u2019ve got to be ready. They punch first and control the tempo in the paint. And I think that\u2019s one of the biggest adjustments. And whenever we do that, we\u2019re going to be able to get out now and transition and get our offense going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Of which little of that happened.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0 It was back in the time machine for the Heat, back on NBC, which carried the NBA during the Heat\u2019s formative years.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u201cI have great memories from the NBC games growing up,\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Adebayo\u2019s first basket moved him past Glen Rice (3,604) for the third-most in franchise history.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ware extended his career-best run of games with multiple offensive rebounds to 18.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Ware and Adebayo entered averaging a combined 20.1 rebounds per game. The franchise record for combined rebounds by two players is 20.2 by Rony Seikaly and Grant Long in 1991-92. They upped that average Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\u2013 The Heat have now lost 13 of their past 16 to the Timberwolves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night\u2019s 122-94 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves: \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,165,189,3880,307,152,3954,6,66,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-522488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-miami-heat","11":"tag-miami-heat-blog","12":"tag-minnesota","13":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","14":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115853867455090771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}