Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat’s misfits come out of the Wolves’ den with the win

The Heat went into the Wolves’ den, scraping away with victory. Kevin Love made his season debut with the starting lineup, and Haywood Highsmith was inserted into the group in place of Nikola Jović, who made the game-winning play for the Heat.

Jimmy Butler was absent with a right ankle sprain.

Anthony Edwards took the first bite out of the Heat’s defense, splashing a left-side tray with Highsmith covering him closely. He also tallied a basket, piercing through the lane, but missed seven shots. The rest of the Timberwolves logged five of 16 looks.

On the other side, the Heat hunted Rudy Gobert in pick and roll, plus were the superior defensive team, deploying zone and man-to-man coverage as they raced out to a 27 to 20 lead through 12 minutes without much offensively from Adebayo.

Then the defense loosened up, permitting the Wolves 12 of 20 baskets, including six of seven in the restricted area.

On offense, Herro rattled off seven points in a row. He made a shot on a  pick-and-roll set with Adebayo, beat Jaden McDaniels from the top to the cup for a layup and swished a 3-pointer against Gobert in drop coverage. The rest of the Heatles made six of 14 shots in the period.

At halftime, the Heat led 52-51. Additionally, the team committed 10 turnovers and had 24 paint points, 12 on the break, five via second chances and 24 from the bench.

The Timberwolves had 26 interior marks, two in the open court, eight on extra tries, 15 from the reserves and eight giveaways.

Subsequently, the Heat came out of intermission crashing on offense courtesy of the Wolves blowing up actions. They lasted six-and-a-half minutes without a point until Jaime Jaquez Jr. connected on a corner tray shielded by a pin down, then made a left-handed layup on the left side over Gobert. On the other side, the hosts took and built a lead on a 3-pointer from Naz Reid plus consecutive triples by Donte DiVincenzo.

The fourth quarter started with the Heat down 68-71.

Herro buried a pull-up mid-range shot in transition and nailed two 3-pointers.

But Minnesota’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker connected on a layup and triple plus dribbled past Terry Rozier for a layup on the left side. And then Jaden McDaniels tracked Mike Conley’s long-range miss, putting it back to take a two-point advantage for the Wolves.

With nine seconds left and the Heat down 92-94, Jović cut backdoor from midcourt, caught the sideline inbound and scored through a foul. He then took the lead, making a freebie.

Next, Conley failed to make the corner triple out of the inbound for the Timberwolves.

The Heat won 95-94. The team had 44 paint points, 26 on the break, 13 via second chances, 23 off turnovers and 36 from the bench.

Herro had 26 points on 60% shooting, with six rebounds, three assists and eight turnovers.

And Adebayo had nine digits on three of 11 looks, with seven rebounds, seven dimes, one steal, three blocks and four turnovers.

The Wolves had 42 interior marks, four in the open court, 19 on extra tries, 20 off turnovers and 35 from the bench.

At the postgame presser, coach Erik Spoelstra said, “That’s the hardest we’ve played in any of the regular season games.”

In the locker room, Jović said these games “help you keep building” and that it was an important win for the team.

Observations:

1. Highsmith was a powerhouse on defense, recording five steals by stripping Anthony Edwards twice and seizing the passing lanes thrice. He also blocked Edwards’ corner shot on a closeout.

2. Bam had another poor offensive performance- nine points on three of 11 baskets- against Gobert, McDaniel and Reid. All of his jumpers outside of the lane bricked, too.  His best move was blowing past Reid on a face-up move from the key to the basket for a powerful jam.

Gobert gave him most trouble, forcing a miss on multiple face-up jumpers and on looks off the catch.

Still, he helped out his teammates by being an offensive lineman. He set four screen assists for nine screen assist points.

On top of that, Adebayo blocked Edwards once and Randle twice before intermission. Edwards was denied on a baseline attack. Randle was stopped on a drive from the top to the cup and in transition.

-Jović had 15 points on six of 12 tries, with seven rebounds, one assist, one steal and one turnover. He had one of his toughest games of the season two nights prior, losing in Denver to the Nuggets. Multiple players checked in off the bench before him, but his hunger was still burning.

-Despite logging eight turnovers, Herro was the Heat’s strongest player, continuing the trend for the season. He made nine of 15 baskets, including four of six in the lane.

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