In battle of depleted rosters, Timberwolves fall short in 113-110 loss to Miami

For as banged up as the Timberwolves were ahead of Monday night's game in Miami, the Heat came in pretty banged up themselves.

There was no Jimmy Butler, no Bam Adebayo and no Dewayne Dedmon, one of their backup centers.

The Wolves should have had an advantage on the front line with Rudy Gobert and still had four of their regular starters available, even with Karl-Anthony Towns, Kyle Anderson, Taurean Prince and Jordan McLaughlin sidelined.

The Wolves still lost to Miami 113-110 in what might turn out to be the most winnable game on this difficult four-game road trip.

"Just watching the film, staying the course, having each other's back, knowing that it's a lot of basketball left," center Naz Reid told reporters. "We're like three games out of the fourth seed. It's a lot of basketball. The West is tough, so we've got to keep going."

The Wolves never took advantage of that front-line advantage they had with Gobert, who scored only 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting to go with eight rebounds. Gobert was a team worst minus-14 and was off the floor for most of the closing minutes as the Wolves were trying to complete their comeback.

Despite that, he Wolves did just fine when they shot the ball — they were at 54% from the field and 44% from three-point range. Reid was able to pick apart the smaller Miami lineup with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Wolves coach Chris Finch opted to play Reid over Gobert, who missed games recently because of a sprained ankle, down the stretch.

"[Reid] has been playing great. In the heart of the zone, he made a lot of really good decisions, he was aggressive, played quickly," Finch told reporters.

Anthony Edwards finished with a team-high 27 points but a season high eight turnovers.

The problem for the Wolves was their 22 turnovers overall, which allowed Miami to take 23 more shots.

"I would say it's not being locked in and then trying to make the right plays," Reid said of the turnovers. "But the defense is able to make a better play. It's not like we're just giving them the ball on purpose. I would say it's the combination of those two."

That's how the Heat can win when shooting just 46% overall, 27% from three-point range and taking just eight free throws.

"We had one of our better shooting nights from three," Finch said. "We did a lot of good things offensively other than turn it over repeatedly."

The Wolves trailed for much of the second half but had cut the deficit to 111-108 with 1 minute, 52 seconds remaining after an Austin Rivers three-pointer.

But on the Heat's next possession, one of the Wolves' constant issues showed up — rebounding. The Wolves could not corral a Kyle Lowry miss, and Miami ended up getting a deep two from the corner from Tyler Herro with 33.2 seconds remaining.

Edwards couldn't convert the free throw for a three-point play on the Wolves' next trip down, but they did get a stop of Miami and the ball back with 2.5 seconds left.

They never got a shot to tie it because they turned it over on the inbounds pass. Inbounder Jaden McDaniels also missed a wide-open Reid in the opposite corner.

"The final play was obviously a turnover, which was fitting because we had 22 of them for the game," Finch said. "Naz was wide open on the weak side of the play. We just needed a second more patience. But yeah, the turnovers and the rebounds of course cost us."

The Wolves allowed 12 second-chance points, an improvement on the 20 they allowed in Boston on Friday. But in a game decided on the margins, it was enough to do them in.

At the beginning of the season, the Wolves were a team that couldn't rebound well enough and committed too many turnovers. Those same problems cost them a game they could have won.

The Star Tribune did not send the author of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.