Timberwolves at Heat
The Miami Heat are much more comfortable in front of their home fans, and they proved that once again with a disappointing road performance on Monday. The Heat will try to get back in the win column when they return to a more familiar setting and host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday.
Miami owns a 23-3 home record but fell to 13-18 on the road with a 125-119 overtime setback at Eastern Conference-worst Cleveland on Monday to mark their sixth consecutive road loss. "It looks and it sounds like a broken record," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after watching his team squander a 22-point lead. "Either myself or Bam (Adebayo) or (Udonis Haslem) or whoever, Jimmy (Butler), you want to bring anybody in here and talk after one of these road games, we all sound the same. We have an idea every game on the road what it tends to be: When the shots go dry, do we have the ability to sustain defensively and get enough stops to change the momentum?" Miami is fighting for homecourt advantage in the East and will play five straight and eight of its next 10 games at home starting with the Timberwolves, who are losers of five straight and 18 of their last 19. Minnesota is surrendering an average of 131.3 points in three games since the All-Star break and let the Mavericks score 81 points in the first half of a 139-123 loss at Dallas on Monday.
TIME: 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: FS North, FS Sun
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (16-40): Minnesota remade its roster at the trade deadline and is operating without star center Karl-Anthony Towns (wrist), leaving a team on the floor struggling to adjust to each other on the fly. "It's hard to (assess yourselves) when we lose the way we lose, but we find a way to put points on the board," Timberwolves guard D'Angelo Russell, who arrived in trade from the Golden State Warriors at the deadline. "It's hard to scout for a team like us that you don't have a system in play right now. We're not executing 100 percent of the time. It's hard to scout for that. It's also hard to gauge for ourselves where we are." Russell scored a team-high 29 points on Monday while fellow newcomer Malik Beasley added 21.
ABOUT THE HEAT (36-21): Adebayo collected 22 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists, four blocks and three steals in Monday's contest but was frustrated after the contest with the team's repeated breakdowns on the defensive end. "I feel like when we miss a couple of shots in a row and they score, that's when it starts," Adebayo told reporters. "When we're missing shots, how do we keep our defense set up. Force them to miss, to get stops." Miami played its second consecutive game on Monday without All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler (personal), who is questionable for Wednesday, while rookie guard Tyler Herro (foot) is out of a walking boot but remains without a timetable for a return.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Timberwolves SG Allen Crabbe (personal) missed the last two games and is day-to-day.
2. Heat rookie SG Duncan Robinson knocked down at least five 3-pointers in six of his last seven games.
3. Minnesota claimed its third consecutive victory in the series with a 116-109 home win on Oct. 27.