The Wolves got off to a fast start once again, but the youthful squad couldn’t maintain their defensive tenacity for very long. The game was a back-and-forth battle for the first half, but the veteran-led Heat pulled away in the second.
Minnesota looked good and got out to a 9-4 lead, but the Heat quickly turned their game around and went on a 10-0 run. The rest of the first quarter was pretty sloppy on both ends. The Wolves finished shooting 25 percent from the field and Miami had five turnovers. Andrew Wiggins played 11 minutes in the first quarter but seemed to force some shots and went 1-for-6.
Shabazz Muhammad provided a nice spark off the bench getting three offensive boards, which included one that lead to a nice and-1. Midway through the second quarter, with the Wolves trailing 32-31, Ricky Rubio and Wiggins made their way back onto the court- unfortunately that didn’t help Minnesota’s shooting woes. The Wolves finished the half 13-for-42 from the field and only 2-for-5 from 3-point range. Miami guard Dwyane Wade decided to turn back the clock with about four minutes to go in the first half and capped off the half with a spectacular half-court buzzer-beater. The former Marquette guard ended the half with 16 points, going an impressive 7-for-12 from the field.
The Wolves again started off the half strong, going on a 7-0 run with the starters back in the game which brought Minnesota within five, 53-48. Basketball is a game of runs as they say and it was Miami’s turn, going on a 12-3 run to be up 67-53. For the rest of the quarter the story was more of the same; Minnesota shooting less than 30 percent and the Heat putting in some scrappy buckets, Wolves trailed 73-61.
“I think we started missing shots early and then everybody starts settling for one-pass shots, like everybody’s going to get us going,” head coach Sam Mitchell said. “It’s just a mark of a young team, not understanding that you still have to run your offense, you still have to make multiple passes, you have to give the defense a chance to make a mistake.”
Mitchell decided to go with the second unit to start the fourth quarter, which led to Miami leading 80-65 with eight minutes to go in the game. With five minutes to go in the fourth, and down 90-72, Rubio and Karl-Anthony Towns had only played 22 minutes each. Considering Minnesota has six games in nine days coming up, coach Mitchell decided to rest his starters. Miami went on to win 96-84.
“The thing that I laugh about everyday is that they think they know how to play,” Mitchell said. That’s the toughest thing with the kids today, they think they know how to play. And you know what, it’s just going to take a certain amount of failure before they realize that they aren’t going to reinvent this game.”
Muhammad was really the only bright spot for the Wolves tonight, scoring 14 points on 5-for-10 shooting and grabbing four offensive rebounds. He sparked a comeback in the second quarter and played with energy all night.
“I think we didn’t move the ball, we were playing really selfish out there and I think if you move the ball great things happen,” Muhammad said. “It’s something that we really need to worry about. I don’t know what we saw out there but we’re pretty disappointed in that performance.”
Wiggins looked off for mostly the whole game, but did show a couple flashes of excellence, which included this strong baseline drive and dunk. Wiggins finished with 12 points, going 5-for-18 from the field.
Minnesota will start a tough stretch of games (six in nine days) on Saturday night in Chicago against the Bulls. Tip-off is at 5:00 p.m. and is available to watch on Fox Sports North Plus and on 830 WCCO Radio.
