Heat closes first winless four-game trip since 2008. Takeaways from loss to Timberwolves

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 105-101 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves (9-8) on Monday night at Target Center to close its four-game trip at 0-4. The Heat (7-11) now returns to Miami for a quick two-game set against the Washington Wizards that begins Wednesday:

The undermanned Heat led for most of the first half. But in the end, Miami lost to go winless on a four-game trip for the first time in more than a decade.

The last time the Heat went winless on a trip that lasted at least four games was when it went 0-4 on a four-game trip all the way back in March 2008.

How did the Heat lose on Monday to do something it hasn’t done in nearly 15 years?

Even with the Timberwolves having their entire roster available and the Heat missing seven players, Miami controlled the first half of the game.

The Heat took control with a 15-1 run in the second quarter to turn a one-point advantage into a 15-point lead before entering halftime ahead by 13.

But the Timberwolves then dominated the third quarter behind hot three point shooting, going on a 27-5 run to erase a 14-point deficit and take an eight-point lead with 2:35 left in the period.

The Timberwolves entered the fourth quarter ahead by five points.

The Heat answered by opening the fourth period with a 10-3 run to regain the lead and pull ahead by two points.

The two teams then traded punches to find themselves tied at 99 with 3:31 to play.

But Minnesota was the better team down the stretch, closing the game on a 6-2 run to clinch the win.

D’Angelo Russell started the game-deciding run by hitting a midrange jumper to give the Timberwolves a two-point lead with 2:28 to play.

Then Rudy Gobert made two free throws to extend Minnesota’s lead to four points with 1:11 left on the clock.

Heat guard Kyle Lowry scored on a quick layup on the other end to cut the deficit back down to two with 29 seconds remaining.

But Heat forward Max Strus fouled Gobert on the next possession with 9.2 seconds to play. Gobert again made both free throws to push the Timberwolves’ lead to four and seal the win.

“Quite frankly, and I’m not saying this as an excuse, the fourth quarter, the guys’ legs were probably a little bit dead from this road trip,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’ve been playing major minutes. That’s not to take away anything from the Timberwolves and that’s certainly not to make an excuse for anything. Guys are giving everything they have. Everybody that’s available to play is literally giving everything they have.”

The Heat’s defense was solid for most of the night, posting a defensive rating of 101 points allowed per 100 possessions in Monday’s loss. That’s a defensive rating that would rank first in the NBA among teams for the season.

It was the Heat’s offense that really struggled in Minneapolis. Missing its top two scorers in Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro, Miami shot just 38.9 percent from the field and 11 of 38 (28.9 percent) from three-point range in the loss for an offensive rating of 97.1 points scored per 100 possessions.

That’s an offensive rating that would rank last in the NBA among teams for the season. The Heat is 0-8 this season when posting an offensive rating worse than 110 points scored per 100 possessions.

“I thought our defense was stable enough,” Spoelstra said. “Of course, they had a couple shot fakes that led to some open looks. But we were doing some good things defensively. Guys were really working, covering a lot of ground. They’re not an easy team to cover. I thought we got some good looks going down the stretch. We just weren’t able to knock enough of them down.”

Lowry scored a team-high 21 points to go with five rebounds and nine assists in 44 minutes on Monday. Heat center Bam Adebayo contributed 17 points, 14 rebounds and five assists in 35 minutes.

“It’s a terrible trip for us by going 0-4,” Lowry said. “But we played extremely hard undermanned and you got to give a lot of these guys who stepped up some credit for how we played these last four games.”

Strus had a tough shooting night and made a late-game decision that ended up proving to be costly.

Strus scored 19 points, but did it on 7-of-23 shooting from the field and 4-of-15 shooting on threes. That’s a lot of shots, but all the attempts were necessary with some of the Heat’s best outside shooters and scorers unavailable.

“That part of it was great,” Spoelstra said of Strus’ 15 three-point attempts. “I love to see guys step up and continue to play your game regardless of whether the ball was going in. We needed those attempts.”

It was a rough shooting trip for Strus, who shot 24 of 67 (35.8 percent) from the field and 12 of 42 (28.6 percent) from three-point range during the four-game stretch away from home.

Strus was also part of a late-game moment that resulted in two important points for the Timberwolves.

With the Timberwolves ahead by two points and in possession of the ball, there was a five second difference between the shot clock and game clock. If the Heat could get a defensive stop, it would get the ball back, call one of its remaining timeouts and have a chance to tie or win the game with about five seconds to play.

But after Gobert received a pass in the post, Strus fouled him with about five seconds left on the shot clock to send him to the free-throw line. Gobert hit both foul shots with 9.2 seconds remaining to extend Minnesota’s lead to four and put the game out of reach.

Spoelstra wasn’t sure after the game if Strus’ foul was intentional or not.

“I don’t know,” Spoelstra said when asked what was behind Strus’ late-game foul on Gobert. “One, I don’t know if it was a foul. It didn’t look like it was intentional. It looked like they were going to be jammed up, five seconds on the clock. We likely would have had five seconds at the end. I don’t know.”

But Strus said he made the decision to foul Gobert at that moment because he’s not known as a good free-throw shooter. Gobert entered shooting just 69.3 percent from the foul line this season, but he hit four straight in the final 1:11 of Monday’s game.

“Historically he’s not a great free-throw shooter,” Strus said. “I thought it was a good chance to put him on the line and hopefully miss one. But I guess it was a stupid play.”

The Heat’s zone defense was effective Monday, but the Timberwolves hit enough of their threes in the second half to escape with the win.

With Minnesota entering with the NBA’s sixth-worst team three-point percentage, forcing the Timberwolves into a bunch of three-point looks was part of the Heat’s defensive game plan.

It worked in the first half, as the Heat’s 2-3 zone got the Timberwolves to take more than half of their shots from three-point range in the first two quarters. Minnesota shot just 3 of 25 (12 percent) from beyond the arc in the first half.

But then the Timberwolves started making threes at a high rate.

Minnesota shot 7 of 11 on threes in the third quarter and 4 of 11 on threes in the fourth quarter to shoot an ultra-efficient 11 of 22 (50 percent) from three-point range in the second half.

Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards played a big part in that second-half push, scoring 18 points on 4-of-8 shooting on threes in the final two quarters. Jaden McDaniels and Jordan McLaughlin each made their three three-point attempts in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Heat shot just 3 of 17 from three-point range in the second half.

“That third quarter, they made a lot of shots and we missed shots,” Lowry said. “Also, we didn’t get into our offense as smoothly as we did in the first half. I felt like we played solid defense throughout the game. Anthony Edwards got it going. He really got it going and kind of won that game for them.”

The result: The Timberwolves outscored the Heat 58-41 to rally from a double-digit deficit for the win.

Despite a starting frontcourt that includes two 7-footers in Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Timberwolves entered as a worse defensive rebounding team than the Heat. It showed.

Even in the loss, the Heat finished Monday’s game with a 12-6 edge in offensive rebounds to outscore the Timberwolves 13-4 in second-chance points.

Even after Miami’s recent rebounding struggles, the Heat entered with a defensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabs) of 71.6 percent that ranked 16th in the NBA.

The Timberwolves entered with a defensive rebounding percentage of 69.4 percent that ranked fourth-worst in the league.

Adebayo grabbed a game-high four offensive rebounds on Monday.

The injury-plagued Heat had fewer players available on Monday that it did in Sunday’s loss in Cleveland.

After having just 10 available players on Sunday because of its injury issues, the Heat had just nine available players on Monday against the Timberwolves.

The player who played Sunday but not Monday was Duncan Robinson, who sprained his left ankle late in Sunday’s loss to the Cavaliers. Robinson has missed two of the Heat’s last three games because of an injury, which mark the first two games he has sat out due to an injury in his NBA career.

The other players the Heat were without Monday were Butler (right knee soreness), Udonis Haslem (personal reasons), Herro (sprained left ankle), Victor Oladipo (left knee tendinosis), Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery).

That left Adebayo, Jamal Cain, Dewayne Dedmon, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic, Lowry, Caleb Martin, Orlando Robinson and Strus as the nine available Heat players against the Timberwolves.

Injuries were an issue that followed the Heat throughout the four-game trip.

The Heat had 11 available players in the first game of the trip in Wednesday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors.

Then the Heat had just seven available players in the second game of the trip in Friday’s overtime loss to the Washington Wizards.

The Heat ended the trip with 10 available players in Sunday’s loss to the Cavaliers and nine available players in Monday’s loss.

Butler and Herro combined to play just one game during the four-game trip. Butler missed the final three games of the trip and Herro has missed the last eight games.

This story was originally published November 21, 2022 at 10:39 PM.

Anthony Chiang

Miami Herald

305-376-4991

Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.