Timberwolves rally vs. Heat for clutch 112-108 win in Miami

MIAMI – The Heat pride themselves on being the toughest NBA team, to the point that the words “Heat Culture” are stamped across center court and their jerseys for Monday’s game.

They have the deep playoff runs the past few seasons to back up those words. The Timberwolves are trying to reach that level in the league, and Monday marked a chance to prove to one of the league’s elite in their building that they can hang with them when they are near full strength.

The teams traded punches for most of the game, with the Wolves coming out on top 112-108.

The Wolves overcame an early 17-point hole to make it game again with their suffocating defense in the second half. After Mike Conley gave the Wolves their first lead of the night 87-84, the Wolves maintained a small lead as the teams traded buckets down the stretch.

An Anthony Edwards fadeaway jumper off the glass gave the Wolves a 109-106 lead with 26.1 seconds remaining. Jimmy Butler, who missed the team’s previous game in Minnesota, missed a three with 23 seconds remaining as Rudy Gobert grabbed the rebound and sank one of two free throws for a four-point Wolves edge.

Following a Bam Adebayo bucket, Nickeil Alexander-Walker sank two free throws with 4.1 seconds remaining to ice the game.

It capped an exhilarating back-and-forth of a playoff-like game that proved the 20-5 Wolves deserve the praise they have been getting for being one of the league’s best.

Edwards had multiple big buckets down the stretch for the Wolves as he finished with 32. Karl-Anthony Towns had 18. Tyler Herro had 25 to lead Miami.

This all came after the Wolves didn’t have the best start to the evening. They committed a turnover and missed their first four shots of the night, a sign of how the early going would play out. They fell behind 22-10 after the Heat scored 12 unanswered points while the Wolves searched for any semblance of an offensive rhythm. They finished the first quarter with 10 field goals and seven turnovers and were behind 33-22. They were 0-for-3 from three-point range.

The second quarter got worse before it got better, as a pair of Duncan Robinson threes gave Miami its biggest lead of the night to that point, 45-28.

Following a timeout, the Wolves went on their first run of the night and scored the next seven points. The Wolves had a hard time getting the good looks they did get to fall, and they finished the first half 11-for-17 in the restricted area. One of those misses from Gobert could have cut the Heat lead to 10; instead, Miami reeled off five straight points to push the lead back to 17 before taking a 66-54 lead into halftime.

Like most of this season, the Wolves came out strong in the third. Defensively, they turned up the pressure as officials called the game a little looser, with only six fouls called all quarter. That helped the Wolves get back in it defensively. They held Miami to just 17 third-quarter points as the Wolves went 9-for-21 in the quarter.

The defense remained stringent to start the fourth quarter against Miami’s bench, and the Wolves clawed back to tie it 84-84 and then took an 87-84 lead on a Conley three in transition. They gutted it out from there.