MIAMI — Anthony Edwards scored 32 points, Karl-Anthony Towns added 18 and the Minnesota Timberwolves clamped down in the second half to beat the Miami Heat 112-108 on Monday night.
Naz Reid scored 15, Mike Conley added 12 and Rudy Gobert grabbed 16 rebounds for the Timberwolves.
Minnesota improved to 20-5, tying idle Boston for the NBA’s best record. The Timberwolves gave up just 42 points in the second half, after trailing by as many as 17 points in the early going.
Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo returned from long injury absences and combined for 47 points for the Heat; Herro scored 25, Adebayo had 22. Jimmy Butler scored 15, Duncan Robinson 14 and Josh Richardson 13 for the Heat.
Herro returned after missing 18 games with a badly sprained right ankle. Adebayo was out for Miami’s most recent seven games with a bruised left hip.
It was Minnesota's league-leading seventh win after trailing by at least 10 points. It was also Miami's seventh loss after leading by double figures, four of those defeats coming at home.
The 20-5 start is Minnesota’s best through 25 games in franchise history; the 2001-02 Timberwolves started 17-8. Most Minnesota seasons – 21 of the previous 34 in franchise history – saw the team under the .500 mark at this point.
Minnesota led for 20 seconds in the game's first 39 minutes — and that lead was only 4-2. Conley's 3-pointer with 8:37 remaining ended what essentially was three straight quarters of Minnesota trudging uphill, putting the Wolves up 87-84.
Miami led by as many as 17 before settling for a 66-54 lead at the half, with Herro getting 17 points. It was the third-most points Minnesota — which entered as the NBA's best team in both points allowed per game and field-goal percentage allowed — had yielded by intermission this season and the Timberwolves' second-largest halftime deficit.
The defense that was missing in the first half showed up in the third quarter.
Miami managed only nine points in the first 8:04 of the second half, missing 10 of its 14 shots from the floor in that stretch and the game quickly got tight. The Wolves won the quarter 23-17, cutting the deficit in half going into the fourth.
UP NEXT
Timberwolves: Visit Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Heat: Visit Orlando on Wednesday.
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