Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 106-104 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves (36-29) on Friday night at Kaseya Center to open a five-game homestand. The Heat (29-33) is right back at it with a matchup against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday at Kaseya Center (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). to complete the back-to-back set:
The Heat continues to struggle to finish games, blowing a fourth-quarter lead on Friday for the sixth time in its last seven losses.
The Heat trailed by 11 points in the second quarter, but closed the first half on a 20-9 run to enter halftime with the game tied at 52.
The Timberwolves again took an 11-point lead with 5:32 left in the third quarter. But the Heat again responded, closing the period on an 18-7 run to enter the fourth quarter with the game tied at 80.
The fourth quarter was close throughout, as the two teams traded punches down the stretch.
The Heat scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to take a five-point lead just 47 seconds into the period.
But after the two teams again found themselves tied at 92 with 6:39 to play, Anthony Edwards hit a three-pointer and Naz Reid made a hook shot during a quick 5-0 run that put the Timberwolves ahead by five points with 4:01 remaining in the fourth quarter.
While the Timberwolves were never able to pull away, they never trailed again in the final minutes.
After the Heat cut the deficit to three points with 2:39 remaining, the Heat had two opportunities to tie the game. But Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro each missed what would have been game-tying threes on the ensuing possessions before Jaden McDaniels made a 9-foot jumper to extend the Timberwolves’ lead to five with 1:05 to play.
The Timerwolves then pulled ahead by six points with 17.8 seconds remaining.
But the Timberwolves still almost gave the game away in a wild finish.
Davion Mitchell scored on a layup to cut the Heat’s deficit to four with 11.9 seconds left.
Then after a Heat foul, Edwards made of his two free throws to push the Timberwolves’ lead up to five with 8.4 seconds to play.
The Heat kept coming, though, as Duncan Robinson drilled a 29-foot three-pointer to trim the deficit to two with 3.2 seconds remaining.
With both teams out of timeouts, the Timberwolves then turned the ball over on the inbounds pass with 1.9 seconds left to give the Heat one last chance to tie or win the game.
With the Heat unable to to draw up a play since it has no timeouts left, Adebayo caught the inbounds pass and rushed up a three-point shot that hit the top of the backboard as the final buzzer sounded.
The Heat wasted another excellent performance from Adebayo in the loss. Adebayo recorded this third consecutive double-double, finishing Friday’s defeat with 29 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and one steal in 43 minutes.
At the start of Friday’s game, it looked like Herro was still feeling the effects of his head cold. But he got stronger as the game went on.
Herro missed Wednesday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers due to his illness and was questionable for Friday’s contest before the Heat announced he would be available just an hour before tipoff.
But Herro started slow, finding himself with just two points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field midway through the second quarter.
But Herro got stronger as the game went on, finishing the loss with 22 points on 9-of-21 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 shooting on threes, six rebounds, seven assists, two steals and two blocks in 39 minutes.
The question is, how will Herro feel for Saturday’s game on the second night of the back-to-back after logging nearly 40 minutes on Friday while sick.
The Heat played without multiple starters for the third straight game.
The Heat remained without starters Kel’el Ware (left knee sprain) and Andrew Wiggins (sprained right ankle) on Friday against the Timberwolves. It marked the third straight game that Ware has missed and the fifth straight game that Wiggins has missed.
In addition, guard Alec Burks missed his first due to injury this season, sitting out Friday’s defeat because of low back pain.
Burks, Ware and Wiggins are considered day-to-day.
“The good thing is we’re definitely seeing progress in the training room with everybody,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Friday’s game. “It’s unfortunate with Alec. He’s been doing whatever he could do the last two days, but his back just tightened up. But everybody is feeling better. I’ve been encouraged by it.”
The Heat was also without Josh Christopher (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand) and Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) on Friday. While Smith is out for the rest of the season, Jovic is set to be re-evaluated in about two weeks in hopes of returning before the end of the regular season.
The only player unavailable for the Timberwolves was starting center Rudy Gobert, who missed Friday’s game because of low back injury maintenance.
Amid the recent injury issues, the Heat has now used a different starting lineup in each of the last five games.
In a Dec. 28 win over the Indiana Pacers, the Heat started a lineup of Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware.
In Sunday’s loss to the New York Knicks, the Heat went with a starting lineup of Mitchell, Herro, Burks, Ware and Adebayo.
In Monday’s win over the Washington Wizards, the Heat used a starting lineup of Terry Rozier, Herro, Burks, Kevin Love and Adebayo.
In Wednesday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Heat turned to a starting unit of Mitchell, Rozier, Burks, Love and Adebayo.
And in Friday’s loss to the Timberwolves, the Heat started a lineup of Mitchell, Herro, Larsson, Love and Adebayo. This group had not played together this season prior to beginning Friday’s game.
Larsson was the latest face to join the Heat’s starting lineup, making the second start of his rookie season on Friday. He finished the defeat with five points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field, four rebounds and one assist.
After this stretch of five different starting lineups in the last five games, the Heat has now used 19 different starting groups this season.
After logging a team-high 40 minutes in Wednesday’s loss to the Cavaliers, Rozier was back in the Heat’s rotation on Friday despite his struggles.
Rozier opened the season as a starter, but he has since moved to the bench role amid his nightmare season. But Rozier isn’t out of the Heat’s rotation yet despite being in the middle of one of the worst seasons of his NBA career.
With the Heat missing a chunk of its rotation because of injuries, Rozier was in the mix for the fifth straight game on Friday after receiving his first two DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season on Feb. 24 and 26.
But Rozier’s playing time was cut from 41 minutes on Wednesday to 12 minutes on Friday. He closed the Heat’s loss with five points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field and 1-of-1 shooting on threes and two rebounds during that limiting playing time.
It’s been a rough year for Rozier, who entered Friday averaging 11.8 points per game on 39.9 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from three-point range this season. That would be the fewest points he has averaged and the worst field-goal percentage he has recorded in a season since his fourth NBA season in 2018-19, with Rozier’s three-point percentage currently his worst for a season since his rookie year in 2015-16.
On top of that, the Heat has been outscored by an eye-opening 9.2 points per 100 possessions with Rozier on the court since Jan. 1. That’s the worst individual net rating among Heat players during this stretch.
The short-handed Heat went with a five-man bench rotation on Friday that included Haywood Highsmith, Robinson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kyle Anderson and Rozier.
Jaquez recorded four points and one rebound in 10 minutes on Friday after missing the previous three games with a sprained right ankle.
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.