MIAMI – Miami’s defence forced 22 turnovers, the last coming on Kyle Lowry’s steal in the closing seconds, and the hosts held off the Minnesota Timberwolves 113-110 on Monday.
Playing without stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, the Heat relied on their aggressive defence and complemented it with a balanced offence that proved to be enough to overcome a lacklustre shooting night.
Miami went just 47-of-102 from the floor, including 13-of-49 from three-point range, but nine players scored between seven and 19 points.
Half of the Heat’s 34 National Basketball Association games this season have seen the teams separated by five points or less, with Miami holding an 11-6 record in those games.
‘’Since we’re in these kind of games every single night, there’s not a sense of panic,’‘ coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Max Strus led the way with 19 points, including five-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Strus was one of five Miami players to score in double figures.
Lowry finished with 18 points and a game-high nine assists.
‘’We had a lot of guys step up,’‘ Strus said. ‘‘Orlando Robinson was huge tonight. Huge.’‘
Tyler Herro added 14 points despite going ice cold from three-point territory at zero-of-eight for the game.
Reserves Orlando Robinson and Gabe Vincent provided 15 and 11 points respectively, powering Miami to a 45-32 advantage in bench points, despite a double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds from Timberwolves reserve Naz Reid.
The Heat also had a 64-52 edge for points in the paint.
Anthony Edwards led all scorers with 29 points.
Edwards, however, committed eight of Minnesota’s 22 turnovers, the last of which came on the Wolves’ final opportunity when D’Angelo Russell lost the ball and Lowry came up with it to deny Minnesota a look at a potential overtime-forcing three-pointer.
Minnesota shot 15-of-34 from deep and were better than 54 per cent from the floor overall at 43-of-79, but the giveaways resulting in 23 fewer field-goal attempts ultimately doomed the Timberwolves.
‘’We just need to keep our minds in the right place,’‘ said Minnesota’s three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert.
Teammate Reid added: “We’ve just got to be better throughout the course of the game, to ensure that we’re not in that position.”
Duncan Robinson and Nikola Jovic each scored nine points for the Heat, Caleb Martin went for eight points and eight rebounds and Victor Oladipo added seven points.
Jaden McDaniels scored 16 points, Russell finished with 13 and dished eight assists and both Gobert and Austin Rivers scored 10 points in the loss. REUTERS
