Timberwolves 106, Heat 104: Four In A Row, The Hard Way

The Timberwolves pulled out a clutch time win in Miami to cap off one of the weirdest regular season series you can dream up

The Minnesota Timberwolves and Miami Heat played two times this season. Neither game finished in a remotely normal fashion.

In meeting one, the Wolves blew a late lead as the chicken dance was blaring on the Target Center speakers after Miami missed two fourth quarter free throws; as boisterous of a celebration as one can find in the Twin Cities during the winter. The problem was, the music continued to play during the possession. All hell broke loose, and the worst ensued.

Friday night ended up going down in a similarly quirky fashion. It started anything but.

The Wolves had a nice offensive flow to start the game. Anthony Edwards, who we later found out wasn’t feeling well and struggling to find a rhythm throughout the evening, didn’t attempt his first shot until the 6:20 mark of the first quarter.

It wasn’t due to face guarding, a clear gameplan to take him out of he game, or other players in the lineup holding the ball for too long. The offense simply flowed well. The Wolves came out of the first up eight points, and were finding ways to get out on the fastbreak and make Miami pay. At the 10 minute mark of the second quarter, the Wolves held a 9-0 advantage in fast break points.

The oddities started to come in the second half. Edwards, due to his lack of feeling well, started the second half in the locker room with Donte DiVincenzo taking his place. Mike Conley, who surprisingly started the game in place of DiVincenzo, ran a two-guard lineup and found a lot of success. He would go on to finish the game with 15 points on 66 percent shooting. If it wasn’t for Finch needing a more switchable lineup down the stretch, he alluded to the fact that Conley would have been a surefire to close.

There were struggles on the margins in the second half however, that caused yet another game to head into clutch time, adding to the stockpile of the Wolves’ league-leading 40 clutch time games on the season.

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Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images

Turnovers, Missed Shots, and Late-Game Fumble

A double-digit lead was held multiple times. The problem? It wasn’t held too long.

Specifically in the second half, the Wolves struggled mightily against the infamous Miami zone defense.

“They do a great job of mixing it up, junking it up, giving themselves a great chance to win,” Head Coach Chris Finch said afterward.

Too much perimeter passing happened when the scoreboard hit quarter three. There was not much of a concerted effort to either one, screen the zone, two get the ball to the middle of the zone, or three collapse it by getting the ball to the basket, a difficult task against stingy gap help.

“At times we found some good looks and at times we fought it,” Finch added. “We made enough plays, got hot, and made a few threes.”

The Wolves committed eight of their 13 turnovers in the second half, with many of them coming during an 18-4 third quarter run from Miami that brought the Heat back from double digits, and in the driver’s seat with a three point lead.

Turning an 11 point lead into a three point deficit in two minutes is something the Timberwolves typically don’t come back from all too easy.

They did. Part one avoided.

Part two was a five point lead with one minute left in the game. After a series of intentional fouls, Donte DiVincenzo missed both free throws, and Julius Randle followed by making just one of two after a susequent stop on the defensive end.

Miami would go on to hit a three courtesy of Duncan Robinson to bring the game to two points. The worst would follow on the inbound afterwards.

What was clearly a tipped basketball off of Haywood Highsmith was ruled off the hands of Edwards, and the Heat had life. A possible disaster with three points left at the free throw line in the last minute that would have surely put the game out of reach.

Being unable to challenge the Wolves played the inbound out, and Julius Randle defended a Bam Adebayo three pointer perfectly (while also maybe getting away with a little contact).

Perhaps it was a foul, but given the previous miss call, I’m willing to judge it as a wash.

The Wolves pulled out a win despite none of their players scoring more than 15 points, something that hasn’t been done in 13 years, according to a thread from Jace Frederick.

The Wolves also tied the franchise record for most player with three or more threes in a game.

Try and make sense of this one, I dare you. Nonetheless, this is the type of win you need on the road. Fighting through elite defense, a lot of contact, high-level shotmaking from Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo, while closing out a game in clutch time.

All things to build on during a four-game win streak.

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Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images

Emptying the Notebook

• Perhaps the most impressive part about the win is how circumstantially grim things looked early in the fourth quarter. With 9:52 left in the fourth, Minnesota committed its fourth team foul and put the Heat in the bonus. From that point forward, the Wolves committed just one foul. Really, really good body control defensively.
• I didn’t love the Wolves shot distribution overall against the zone in the middle of the game. I thought things could be put on ice moreso earlier on than they were. Lots of pass-pass threes on the perimeter that didn’t result in many actions to break the zone down. The football version of three run plays and a punt. Ant wasn’t feeling well, I get it, but success was found with Naz in the middle of the zone and Jaden at the dunker spot. When the Wolves made their run in the fourth, they went to that much more.

NBA

• Anthony Edwards got close to his career high of 14 rebounds (he finished with 13). Even when he wasn’t playing great due to illness, his rebounding down the stretch won the Wolves the game, especially against a Heat team that was challenging every rebound.

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Up Next

The Timberwolves will host a pesky San Antonio Spurs team at Target Center on Sunday. Even without Victor Wembanyama for the rest of the season, the Spurs have been competitive with some of the West’s best teams, and noted Wolves killer De’Aaron Fox will meet the Wolves for the first time since joining his new team. Even with the easiest schedule down the stretch, Sunday poses as a trap game before the Wolves hit the road once again.

Tipoff is slated for 7:00 CST.

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Highlights