Timberwolves at Heat
The Minnesota Timberwolves suffered a 123-120 overtime loss at home to the lowly Atlanta Hawks on Friday, and some of the fans weren't happy. The Timberwolves will leave the boos behind when they begin a three-game road trip by visiting the Miami Heat on Sunday.
Minnesota went 21-of-38 from the free-throw line in Friday's loss, with swingman Andrew Wiggins missing seven of his 12 attempts and drawing the most scorn from the home fans. "That's fans for you," Wiggins, who came out of the locker room at the start of the game without his jersey on, told reporters. "We've got some (not so good) fans, and we've got some good fans. That's just how it works." The Heat are winners of six of their last seven and cruised past the Cleveland Cavaliers 118-94 on Friday while placing seven scorers in double figures. "It took us a little bit of time to get to our identity," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters. "I think we approached it in the first quarter, that this may be an opportunity that we can try to outscore somebody and just focus on the offense. But in the second quarter, we started to settle in and compete a little bit harder. In the second half, it was much better."
TV: 6 p.m. ET, FS North (Minnesota), FS Sun (Miami)
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (16-19): Minnesota center Karl-Anthony Towns collected 31 points, 19 rebounds, five assists and three blocks on Friday but missed five of his 15 free-throw attempts and was not happy that the team fell into a big hole in the first half. "An edge, we didn't play with no edge," Towns told reporters. "We came in at halftime realizing we were getting our butts kicked. We came out in the second half with the edge we should have played the whole 48 (minutes) with. We put ourselves in that position. We dug ourselves out of a tremendous hole. We just didn't close it out." The Timberwolves dropped seven of their last 10 games overall and are 4-13 on the road.
ABOUT THE HEAT (17-17): Small forward Justise Winslow is serving as the team's point guard with Goran Dragic sidelined and continues to post impressive performances in that role. Winslow scored a team-high 24 points on 11-of-21 shooting and added 11 rebounds and seven assists in Friday's triumph. "I'm just playing with a lot of instincts," Winslow told reporters. "But I'm just trying to lead. I want all the guys to play free. I want all the guys to be confident in their shots. I want to be confident in mine. I think that's been a big thing recently. I think we've been super confident within each other and my teammates have been super confident with me."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Timberwolves PG Derrick Rose averaged 24.5 points in the last two games but left early Friday with a left ankle injury and is day-to-day.
2. Heat C Bam Adebayo scored 18 points on 8-of-8 shooting off the bench on Friday.
3. Minnesota earned a 125-122 overtime victory in its trip to Miami last season, with Wiggins going 7-of-8 from the line in the win.