MIAMI – The Heat take great pride in being the most resilient NBA team; in fact, for Monday’s game, the words “Heat Culture” will be inscribed across center court and their jerseys.
They can support those remarks with their impres
sive playoff runs over the past few seasons. The Timberwolves are working to get to that level in the league, and they had an opportunity on Monday to show one of the elite players in the league that they can compete with them when they are playing close to full strength. For the majority of the quarter, both teams traded blows, with the Wolves winning 112-108.
With their stifling defense in the second half, the Wolves overcame an early 17-point deficit to tie the game. The Wolves held a slim lead as the teams traded baskets in the final minutes after Mike Conley gave them their first lead of the game, 87-84. With 25.6 seconds left, Anthony Edwards made a fadeaway jumper off the glass to give the Wolves a 109-106 lead. With 21.4 seconds left, Rudy Gobert gathered the rebound and made one of two free throws to give the Wolves a four-point lead. Jimmy Butler, who missed the team’s prior game in Minnesota, had missed a three-point shot.
With 4.7 seconds left, Nickeil Alexander-Walker sank two free throws to seal the game after a bucket by Bam Adebayo. It concluded an exciting back-and-forth of a game that felt like a playoff series, demonstrating that the 20-5 Wolves are deserving of the recognition as one of the top teams in the league.
Anthony Edwards finished with 32 points for the Wolves after making several big baskets in the closing minutes. 18 were Karl-Anthony Towns’s. Tyler Herro led Miami with twenty-five. All of this happened after the Wolves’ evening didn’t get off to the best start. They made a mistake and missed their opening four shots of the game, indicating the type of start they would have. The Heat scored 12 points in a row while the Wolves were trying to find any kind of offensive rhythm, and they eventually fell behind 22–10. With seven turnovers and ten field goals at the end of the first quarter, they trailed 33–22. Their three-point attempt rate was 0 for 3.
Before it got better, the second quarter got worse when Miami took its largest lead of the game, 45-28, thanks to two three-pointers from Duncan Robinson.The Wolves scored the next seven points after going on their first run of the game after a timeout. The Wolves ended the first half 11-for-17 in the restricted area, struggling to convert the few good looks they did get. Rudy Gobert’s miss could have reduced the Heat’s lead to 10, but Miami scored five points in a row to regain the lead and went into the half leading 66-54. Like most of this season, the Wolves finished third with great performance. They increased their defensive pressure as the game was called looser by the officials, who only called six fouls in a quarter. That made it easier for the Wolves to regain defensive parity. They hostedReid’s offensive surge gave the Wolves the boost they needed to tie the game. By the end of the first quarter and half, they had reduced Dallas’ lead to four and one, respectively. They suffocated Dallas in the second half, as they have done to numerous opponents this season, resembling a snake that had curled around its prey and was about to strike. Dallas was suddenly forced to make more baskets than they were making (42% overall, 1 for 14 from three-point range), and the Wolves were comfortably leading by double digits for the majority of the fourth quarter. Dallas’ Luka Doncic finished with 39 points and 13 assists, but the Wolves prevailed handily. “They got off to a great start early in the match.The Wolves have won six straight games this season, which is a league-high, despite falling behind by double digits at any point during the contest. Nickeil Alexander-Walker came off the bench to provide strong defense and 13 crucial points, while Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 21 points and 17 rebounds.
Despite having a poor shooting night and dishing out 11 assists, Edwards managed to finish with nine points on 3-for-19 shooting and 11 assists. With 3 minutes and 21 seconds remaining, he found guard Mike Conley in the open for an easy three-pointer that put the Wolves ahead 16 points. “That just shows his growth and his playmaking ability and understanding, ‘My gravity is going to help me create advantages and disadvantages for our team,'” said Alexander-Walker. “And he made the right read damn near every time.” Reid made his debut before a crowd that will remember him for the rest of the game, setting himself up for three threes with three of Edwards’ assists coming in the first half.Reid remarked, “All the guys were getting me rolling.” “They, too, were thrilled. Just shouted [at me] to go on and on. That’s what you’ve always desired.
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