If a night was a perfect representation of a second night of a back-to-back, it was Saturday evening inside Target Center.
Missing Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin and Kevin Love–in addition to Haywood Highsmith and Josh Richardson–the Minnesota Timberwolves crushed the Miami Heat 106-90 to earn their first win of the 2023-24 season.
Miami trailed by two at halftime, but shot a dismal 13-of-42 (31.0 percent) in the second half, including 6-of-25 in the final quarter after starting 2-of-15 (Heat began 2-of-14 in the 4Q Friday night, too).
Minnesota, meanwhile, shot 20-of-39 (51.3 percent)–7-of-18 from deep–across the final 24 minutes. They also converted on 12 of their 19 paint attempts compared to Heat’s 6-of-16.
Naz Reid led all scorers with 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range in 28 minutes off the bench. Tyler Herro talled a Heat-high 22 points on an inefficient 8-of-23 shooting; Bam Adebayo had 19 on 7-of-14 shooting. No other Heat player had double figures.
The Wolves had six double-figure scorers. Anthony Edwards was second behind Reid with 19 points, while Rudy Gobert tallied a 14-point, 14-rebound double-double. Karl-Anthony Towns tallied a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double of his own on 5-of-12 shooting as well.
The Miami Heat fall to 1-2, while the Wolves improve to 1-1.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for updates.
in other news…Spo getting props from lakeshow fans after losing to the kings. apparently their coach “misused” players with hot hands in the first half and having no minutes in closing and also role players motivated and utilized properly by Erik as per their words lol
hawks 127 bucks 110 lillard 2 for 12
Bucks b2b vs Heat next. I hope we can limit Dame also. Birdies had a great game everyone contribuing
The comments below just show how passionate Heat’s fans are about the game. Folks it is just 3 out of eighty something games and some fans think the house is on fire. Chill folks.
Yeah you can tell Spo is experimenting with a lot of things right now. The comment section might not realize it, but Spo is basically treating these games like a glorified preseason. I think it’s really fun to watch
IMAO, this was a good game for the Heat.To me this is still a continuation of the preseason games. I think that the game was more of a trial of the Heat’s depth chart than a statement on the Heat’s starters! I think it was trial of Jaquez, Jovic, Cain and Dru Smith. Who amongst them are suitable to join a tight 9 man rotation during play off. For the most part of the game, the Heat did well until late into the game. This tells me that Jaquez and Bryant are in, if they remain consistent and healthy. Jovic, Cain and Dru are looking in and probably will form the 3rd unit.
Cain looked great, but he can’t shoot. If that dude can start making 3-pointers, he’ll have a long career in the NBA. Dru looks amazing on defense but needs to know his role on offense. Jovic looked even better than I expected, but he’s young. I think he’ll get a lot of regular season minutes, but won’t be in the playoff rotation this year.
Jamie looks awesome but he’s clearly still a rookie. Not used to the speed and talent in the NBA. He also needs a nickname. How about “Jamie the Hawk”?
Nickname, how about 2Js or JJ.
Dru to me seems lost in defense, his man blows past him with ease. His shooting is poor. The bright side rfor me is that at his young age, he reads defenses very well and knows where to direct the ball to and he is not afraid to drive down the lane…. he has guts.
Too many players out and on the night of a B2B. It felt like it was going to happen. Hopefully we can get a couple guys back for the Bucks game, though will be on the road.
Tough early schedule with so many guys out and not able to form a rotation. I’m happy the young guys are getting experience.
yeah they looked good against the Wolves and the Celtics, but lost them both. I’d love to see them get a W against the Bucks
The Heat were missing five players from 9-10 man rotation. Coach has strange substitution pattern, almost following analytics as for time on the floor (HFL’s Spoelstra moniker of “Spobot” fits here). Youngsters showed well, so hope for the future. What upset me the most was how Adebayo was missing free throws, not acceptable for a professional basketball player to regress in this area. Besides that, it’s one step at a time with this iteration of the Miami Heat, baby steps really.
3 rebounds ?
Chill, chill, chill!. This is just game 3 of Eighty something games.
You cant win by scoring 90. When Herro, Dunc and Bam are a bit off, thats the reality with this group.
Jovic was really good, but JJJ have a rookie game. Still solid. Dru is a positive surprise.
So, on positive note, it was back to back, on the other side of US, with 5 players out, bad shooting night, against good opponent, and Heat can follow the tempo for 3/4 of the game.
But we need another scorer, and another point guard. I cant imagine this team win a game with Dru as a starter in case of Lowry injury. And JRich is not the answer.
agreed. this team looks great, but they need one more scoring guard. I’m starting to soften my “Zach LaVine stinks” stance
I didnt… Zach LaVine still stinks, and he is the main reason that Bulls stinks. But yeah, we need more scoring.
I missed the second half really surprised at the end score.
Did Jaime begin to slow his processing down and clean up the little mistakes that came from it?
Jovic needs to go to Bam camp and learn how to screen, but I liked his fight for rebounds and I didn’t see too many lost moments on defense.
It’s early and I’m looking forward to seeing the offense evolve when Bam, Herro, Jaime, and Jovic are sharing the floor with anyone who isn’t Butler or Lowry. If they can exceed expectations it’s gonna make it more difficult for Pat and Andy to want to trade them.
It was close for almost the entire game, but the Wolves ran off like 15 straight point to start the 4th quarter and that was that. Jamie and Jovic both played great, but they both played very limited minutes.
It’s really early so I didn’t mention it but there’s gotta be more to the offense when Herro is the primary playmaker.
I do like seeing him shoot all those top of the arc threes, but I wonder if (like Dame) he needs to expand his range on those.
If the eternal optimists are right this time, if the Heat are a playoff contender, I will be pleasantly surprised. Jimmy’s need for workload management won’t make it easier. But, we need to see what happens when Highsmith and Richardson return. Even though neither is a big name needle mover, they will collectively help some. The question is, how much and do we have enough?
forgot caleb 30 hes a needle mover
Yes we do have enough, call me a blind optimist, lol!
Celtics and Bucks both look very beatable
sshhh…they might hear you 😁😜
don’t take my word for it, just watch last year’s playoffs
Yea because the teams are the exact same right?
Indeed, they do. I was not moved. With the few games played, the only team that looks like a championship team is GSW.
Did we forget about the Nuggets already?
Bam looked good. Duncan looked good. Cain and Jovic and Jamie J all looked good. Thomas Bryant is an upgrade over Zeller. One problem, none of those guys are guards.
Tyler is trying to do too much. Lowry would be great on a minimum contract, but at $30 mil he’s an albatross. Dru played solid defense, he’s got a ton of potential. But he shouldn’t be the third best guard on a contender.
This team looks really good, but they need a guard. I’ll try not to mention that they almost had one, but the next game is against the Bucks. Sweet, sweet irony
Bucks next game. Second team that’s got a score to settle with us after Bos. Let’s go 2-2
3 games in, 5 guys out. Not the time to get desperate. Some people hit the panic button a bit too soon for my taste.
Need to get used to it lol. They have their own panic button…in game, after, before, all season long when our team don’t win every time. Sad but funny
I am just happy with what jovic and jjj showed with the limited minutes and the few touches they got.
please call phily pat and get james.need offense.they can have anybody not named jim or bam.
Even JJJ. I’m a Celtics fan but a Ucla Bruin. Harden is a cancer. A great player but unless he mirrors Butler. Butler had some problems in Minnesota. Houston, Brooklyn, and Philly. An obvious pattern of when anything goes not to his liking, he just bolts!
Ucla fan, no edit feature?
I realize this is probably going to fall on deaf ears. But I need to make this clear. The Heat are never, never, NEVER going to trade for James Harden. Maybe they would take a chance on him if he gets bought out. But they’re not trading for him.