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 (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). to complete the back-to-back set at home:
The Heat continues to struggle to finish, wasting a fourth-quarter lead on Friday for the sixth time in its last seven losses. This time, the Heat felt like the officials missed a foul call at the end of the game that could have changed the result.
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 Timberwolves then pulled ahead by six points with 17.8 seconds remaining.
But Minnesota still almost gave the game away in what turned into 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 one 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 committed a turnover 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 draw up a play since it had 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.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra opened his postgame press conference by making it known that he felt Adebayo was fouled by Timberwolves forward Julius Randle on the last-second three-point heave.
“This is what I’ll say,” Spoelstra said. “That last baseline out of bounds, we did not execute and get what we wanted to. With that said, Bam got fouled. I’m not trying to get fined. League, don’t fine me. I’m not doing histrionics up here. I’m fully in control. At any point during the game, that’s a foul. Did he mean to foul? No. Is that what we wanted? No. But I will tell you this, Bam Adebayo got fouled on that. He got clipped. And if that’s in the first quarter, that’s a foul. But we had our opportunities through that fourth quarter. It was back and forth. It was a great game. Both teams were playing for something and they made more plays.”
A foul would have put the Heat in position to potentially escape with the win, sending Adebayo to the foul line for three free throws in a two-point game.
“I don’t know,” Adebyao said when asked if he felt like he was fouled on the final shot attempt of the game. “I was too busy shooting the ball. It’s one of those things, man, we were right there again and we’re going to have a breakthrough at some point.”
Instead, 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 on 11-of-21 shooting from the field, 1-of-5 shooting on threes and 6-of-7 shooting from the foul line, 13 rebounds, four assists and one steal in 43 minutes.
“He was just tremendous,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo. “I mean, look, if I could have played him 48-plus minutes in a 48-minute game, I would have. I probably should have.”
Edwards was relatively quiet for the Timberwolves, ending the night with 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting on threes. But Edwards grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out six assists for Minnesota, as seven Timberwolves players finished with double-digit points as part of a balanced offensive attack.
Even after Friday’s loss, the Heat remains in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 20 regular-season games left to play.
“Even with this result, I hope Heat Nation and the fans can really appreciate how hard our guys are competing,” Spoelstra said. “We ain’t going anywhere. We’re going to get this right. I know it seems like we’re constantly saying that after the game. But these experiences are going to harden us, steel us until we get this breakthrough that I feel like our locker room deserves.”
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.
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.
“He did get stronger,” Spoelstra said of Herro. “I mean, the first four minutes of the game, I thought I was going to have to take him out and I thought he was going to be playing 20 minutes tonight. He was clearly out of rhythm in the first half. But his competitive nature kind of took over once this game got going.”
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?
“I started off pretty rough,” Herro said following Friday’s loss. “I went up and down, caught my wind. And then as the game went on, I felt a little bit better. I’ll get an IV, get some rest tonight and be ready to roll tomorrow.”
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 game of the season due to injury, 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,” 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 its 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, Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Adebayo and 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 Friday’s game.
After this stretch of five different starting lineups in the last five games, the Heat has now used 19 different starting groups this season.
“Down men, trying to figure out lineups, we’re still right there,” Adebayo said. “So we still have faith. Imagine what we can do when we all get healthy.”
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 a 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 still 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 9.6 points per 100 possessions with Rozier on the court since Jan. 1.
The short-handed Heat went with a five-man bench rotation on Friday that included Haywood Highsmith, Robinson, Jaquez, 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.
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 10:36 PM.
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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.