MIAMI – Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert had a mischievous smile on his face as he talked about why the team has had slow starts of late.
“Maybe we need to hit each other before the game or something like that,” Gobert said. “Just to be ready to be physically active.”
Apparently it wasn't lost on Gobert that he was the one who attacked teammate Kyle Anderson in last season's regular-season finale, a moment that encapsulated a frustrating season that never really got off the ground for the Wolves.
But as Monday's 112-108 victory over the Heat showed, the gap between last season and this season is like the gap between December weather in South Beach and Minnesota.
The 20-5 Wolves defeated the NBA's self-proclaimed strongest team at their home stadium with a full Heat roster and only point guard Kyle Lowry. The words “Heat Culture” were everywhere at the Kaseya Center — on the floor and on Miami’s jerseys. That phrase is synonymous with a type of toughness the Heat tout that others in the NBA don't have, and they recently won two Eastern Conference titles to back it up.
But the Wolves went head-to-head with the Heat down the stretch and emerged victorious. When Miami started shooting in the final minutes, the Wolves always had an answer.
“It was an incredible fourth quarter,” coach Chris Finch said. “The shooting technique of both teams was at a high level.”
Anthony Edwards, who finished with 32 points, scored eight more points in the final minutes, including a bench shot that gave the Wolves a 109-106 lead with 26.1 seconds to play. This came after Tyler Herro (team-high 25 points) had cut the lead to one and the crowd was on its feet.
“I told Mike [Conley] “When they took the shot to just give me the ball and get out of the way because that’s what I work on every day,” Edwards said. “I knew when I got to that point I was in a bad place.”
Edwards' jumper came on a Wolves possession after Karl-Anthony Towns (18 points) grabbed an offensive rebound after an Edwards miss against former Wolves forward Jimmy Butler (15 points) and then Gobert (nine points, 16 rebounds). for an impressive alley fall. Oops to keep the Wolves to three.
“I was ready for the rebound,” Gobert said. “But I saw that he saw me and I knew he was going to throw it. It was a perfect pass, a great game.”
Finch said moments like that, especially Towns-Gobert's lob, were “winning plays.” These were in short supply at the start of the game as Wolves fell behind by 17 on several occasions at half-time.
But as has been usual of late, the Wolves stepped up defensively again in the second half, which they won 58-42.
“Our defense in the second half was everything,” Finch said. “I didn’t really like us in the first half.
The word “physicality” came up frequently in players’ post-game comments about the changes in defense.
“We said at halftime, let’s get physical and see what happens,” Gobert said. “We did that and the game took care of itself.”
It helped that the officials only called six fouls in the third quarter. Trailing 83-77 after three games, the Wolves finally took their first lead of the night when Conley (12 points, six assists) hit one of his four three-pointers on the night to put the Wolves up 87-84 with 8:37 to play brought leadership.
They took a few hits on Monday night, but they dished out a few more.
“Any time we do the things we're supposed to do, especially on defense, we put ourselves in a position to win the game,” Gobert said.