Herro returns, but Heat’s trip begins with blowout loss to Timberwolves. Takeaways and details
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 122-94 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves (24-13) on Tuesday night at Target Center to begin a four-game trip. The Heat (20-17) continues the trip on Thursday against the Bulls in Chicago:
The Heat finally got guard Tyler Herro back from injury. But Herro’s return ended with a blowout loss to the Timberwolves.
Herro made his return Tuesday after not playing in 11 consecutive games and also missing 13 of the last 14 games because of a right big toe contusion he sustained in the Heat’s road loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Dec. 3.
Herro was even relatively effective in his first game action in four weeks with 17 points in 28 minutes, but it didn’t matter.
The Heat, which led by as many as nine points in the first half, entered halftime in a 61-54 hole.
The Heat could never overcome that deficit, as the Timberwolves pulled ahead by as many as 31 points and led for the entire second half.
The 28-point defeat is the Heat’s most lopsided loss of the season.
“We got a lot to work on as a team,” Heat captain Bam Adebayo said. “We can’t lose our focus when somebody makes a run or shots aren’t falling. We got to continue to play our style of basketball, which is play in transition, swing the ball collectively, and get each other open shots.”
The Heat’s offense struggled to generate quality looks against the Timberwolves’ stingy defense, especially in half-court situations.
The Heat, which entered averaging the third-most points in the NBA this season at 120.8 per game, totaled just 94 points on 35.7 percent shooting from the field and 12-of-37 (32.4 percent) shooting from three-point range while committing 18 turnovers on Tuesday. It marked just the third game this season that the Heat has been held under 100 points, falling to 0-3 in those games.
“Our offense,” Heat guard Norman Powell said when asked what the team’s biggest issue was on Tuesday. “Our offense was the most challenging thing. Yeah, the offense was.”
The Heat scored just 85.6 points per 100 half-court plays on Tuesday, according to Cleaning the Glass, for a half-court offensive rating in the 17th percentile among NBA teams this season.
Another ugly number: The Heat shot just 19 of 48 (39.6 percent) from inside the paint against a Timberwolves defense anchored by center Rudy Gobert. For perspective, the Heat is shooting 54.7 percent from inside the paint for the season.
As a result, the Timberwolves outscored the Heat 62-38 in the paint on Tuesday.
“There were a bunch that were point-blank,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Heat’s struggles around the rim. “And we just missed them. And then some we were going full speed and then missed some of those. But it was an inordinate amount of missed layups, and then the missed paint shots. I’m not a math guy, but 19 for 48. I don’t think that’s a good percentage.”
The fourth quarter was really rough for the Heat, which missed 10 of its first 11 shots in the period.
Miami scored just 17 points on 5-of-20 (25 percent) shooting from the field and 2-of-12 (16.7 percent) shooting from behind the arc in Tuesday’s fourth quarter.
Powell led the Heat with a team-high 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range.
Herro (17 points) and Andrew Wiggins (10 points) were the only other Heat players who finished with double-digit points.
The Timberwolves were led by star guard Anthony Edwards, who finished with a game-high 26 points in 29 minutes.
With the Timberwolves also earning a 10-point win over the Heat in Miami on Saturday, Minnesota has now recorded two double-digit wins over Miami in four days.
“The one on Saturday we had a spirit to fight all the way to the end,” Spoelstra said, comparing the two losses to Minnesota. “That’s what is most disappointing to me as the head coach, the last six minutes. It just felt like we let it go. At that point, we weren’t going to win the game. When they knocked down those threes. ... But still, what you have is your spirit and you just keep on fighting. Not just to let it go there at the end.”
Even with Herro making his return, the Heat did not change its starting lineup.
Instead, the Heat went with the starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Powell, Wiggins, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware on Tuesday for the fifth straight game. It marked the 11th game this group has started for the Heat this season, which is the most among the 12 different starting lineups that Miami has used.
The Mitchell-Powell-Wiggins-Adebayo-Ware lineup, which entered Tuesday’s contest being outscored by opponents by 4.9 points per 100 possessions in 127 minutes together this season, dropped to 6-5 in its 11 starts this season.
This lineup got the Heat off to a strong start on Tuesday, opening the game on a 19-14 run before the first substitution was made.
But the Heat’s starting unit was outscored by the Timberwolves 15-11 to begin the third quarter before Miami turned to its bench for the first time in the second half.
Herro played off the bench in his first game in nearly a month.
In Herro’s first game action since Dec. 9 and just his seventh game of the season, he recorded 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, 1-of-4 shooting from three-point range and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, nine rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes off the bench.
“It felt good to be back healthy, be back on the court,” Herro said. “Obviously, I would like to have won the game, but it just felt good to be healthy.”
Herro entered Tuesday’s game for his first stint with 5:33 left in the first quarter, hitting a corner three-pointer to make his first shot of the night.
Herro continued to make an impact in his minutes Tuesday, totaling 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field and 1-of-1 shooting from three-point range, six rebounds and two assists in 14 first-half minutes.
But in the end, Herro’s production wasn’t nearly enough. Like every other player in the Heat’s rotation on Tuesday, Herro finished with a negative plus/minus at minus 25.
Herro, who also missed the first 17 games of the season due to left ankle surgery he underwent in September, missed 30 of the Heat’s first 36 games this season before returning to play against the Timberwolves.
Tuesday marked only the third game that Herro has played off the bench since the start of the 2022-23 season. His only two games as a reserve before Tuesday during this stretch came on April 5, 2024 and April 7, 2024 after he returned from a 20-game absence due to right foot medial tendinitis.
But after those two games off the bench toward the end of the 2023-24 season, Herro returned to a starting role. It remains to be seen how long Herro will play as a reserve after making his return on Tuesday from a toe injury.
“That’s just a decision,” Spoelstra said when asked to explain his decision to play Herro off the bench on Tuesday.
Will Herro continue to play in a reserve role?
“I’m not going to get into any of that right now,” Spoelstra said.
Herro proved to be a quality bench player earlier in his career, becoming the first and only Heat player to ever win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award during the 2021-22 season.
Even with Herro entering the mix, the Heat’s bench still missed sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Jaquez, who has established himself as one of the early favorites for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award this season, missed his second straight game with a sprained right ankle.
Herro’s return and move to the bench allowed the Heat to use him in Jaquez’s usual sixth man role on Tuesday.
The problem is Herro provided the bench’s only efficient production against the Timberwolves.
Herro was part of a four-man Heat bench rotation that also included Nikola Jovic, Pelle Larsson and Dru Smith.
Jovic, Larsson and Smith combined for only 19 points on 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) from the field and 3-of-9 (33.3 percent) shooting from three-point range on Tuesday.
The Heat then emptied its bench late in the blowout loss to the Timberwolves.
It was another low-scoring night for Adebayo. Ware also struggled.
Adebayo scored only four points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field in Tuesday’s first half. The second half wasn’t any better, as Adebayo scored just three points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field in the final two quarters.
Adebayo finished the loss with seven points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes, 11 rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes. Adebayo did not generate any free throws in what turned out to be his second-lowest scoring performance of the season.
It has been a rough season for Adebayo on the offensive end so far.
Not only has Adebayo reached the 20-point mark just once in his last 12 appearances, but he also entered Tuesday averaging his fewest points since his third NBA season at 17.3 points per game and is shooting a career-low 45.6 percent from the field this season.
Adebayo’s partner in the Heat’s starting frontcourt also had an off night on Tuesday. Ware finished the loss with seven points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes, 11 rebounds and one block in 28 minutes.
“Kel’el was introduced to a guy that brought a physical presence and an edge against him,” Spoelstra said of Ware’s matchup against Gobert on Tuesday. “But Kel’el bounces back. These experiences are good for him. His growth has been immense, but it has not been linear. It’s been a lot of this, and he’s significantly better than where he was last year at this time.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2026 at 10:35 PM.
