MIAMI – While the Miami Heat have the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night, the team has to recover from the 106-104 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves Friday, which was the first game of the back-to-back. As the Heat were once again dealing with injuries, it was still a frustrating outing since they were in multiple positions to win the contest.

Bam Adebayo had another great game as he led with 29 points and 14 rebounds as Tyler Herro coming off a head cold finished with 22 points, seven assists, and six rebounds. Duncan Robinson was the only other Miami player in double-digits as he had 15 points off the bench.

Speaking of Adebayo, head coach Erik Spoelstra would have an opening statement after the game saying that Adebayo was fouled on the last play of the game.

“Look, I’ll say this, because we had our chances and then there was a wild sequence of events,” Spoelstra said. “Did a great job on our denials down the stretch. Those last few inbounds forced that turnover there at the end. And this is what I’ll say, that last baseline out of bounds, we did not execute and get what we wanted to.”

“With that said, Bam got fouled,” Spoelstra continued. “I’m not trying to get fouled. League, don’t fine me. I’m not doing histrionics up here. I’m fully in control. At any point during the game, that’s a foul. Did he mean to foul? No, is that what we wanted? No, but I will tell you this. Bam Adebayo got fouled on that. He got clipped. And if that’s in the first quarter, that’s a foul.”

Here are three takeaways from another heartbreaking loss:

A tale of two quarters for Heat in first half vs. Timberwolves

As the Heat look to regain their faith, it was crucial to start the game fast in hosting the Timberwolves, which marks the beginning of the current five-game home stand. However, the first quarter saw a strong start for Minnesota as they shot 54.5 percent from the field and made seven of their 13 attempts from three-point range.

Miami on the other hand made 34.6 percent of their shots from the field and only four of their 10 attempts from deep as the team still misses key players like rookie center Kel’el Ware, Andrew Wiggins, and Alec Burks. The first two are in the team’s preferred starting lineup along Herro, Adebayo, and Davion Mitchell.

Herro would make his return after a one-game absence due to a head cold and from the get-go, he didn’t look like the same player that was selected to his first All-Star selection. Since Friday is the first game of a back-to-back, one has to wonder if the illness will carry over then, but he would finish the second half strong, finishing the duration with 10 points.

Besides Herro, the team all around turned it around in the second period, coming back from an 11-point lead to tie the game up at halftime at 52 apiece. With the Heat’s Adebayo amid an offensive resurgence, it was on display in the first half leading the team with 15 points on six of 11 shooting from the field to go along with nine rebounds.

Another close second half for the Heat

With the Heat trying to recover from the painful loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, it wasn’t an encouraging start as the Timberwolves started on an 11-2 run, even without Anthony Edwards not present to start the second half. However, Miami would turn up the intensity and had an electric 8-0 swing in 22 seconds where due to clumsy turnovers, the home team capitalized with a Adebayo three, a Robinson three, and an Adebayo dunk.

With the arena as loud as it’s been the whole night, the Heat would turn an 11-point deficit into tying the game once again going into the fourth quarter. It was another productive period for Adebayo and Herro who had 10 and seven respectively.

Once again, the team was offered opportunities to take control of the game, but it wasn’t shown in the fourth quarter as they were outscored 26-24. Miami would make things interesting in the final moments of the game as Robinson made a three and Haywood Highsmith forced a Minnesota turnover, but Adebayo missed what could’ve been the game-winning three at the end.

Fans could be experiencing deja vu from the amount of close second halves that result in losses as Miami once again comes up too short, though the last play as Spoelstra mentioned will be controversial.

More rotational changes for Heat, Terry Rozier in the spotlight

Heat guard Terry Rozier has highlighted for his rough season, especially in the loss to Cleveland Wednesday where he played a game-high 40 minutes and missed all eight of his shot attempts in the second half. Spoelstra would be asked before the game about playing a struggling Rozier, but downplayed saying there are other factors.

“I don’t want Terry to be a target right now, that’s easy,” Spoelstra said. “I mean, this is the thing, when we’re playing all these tight games and really close, competitive games, and this is what I remind the locker room, we have to stay so laser focused into the process and not just the result.”

“Everybody just watches the end result,” Spoelstra continued. “Any one of these games, if we finish it off and a lot of this narrative, a lot of the dialogue, it just quiets on its own. And that’s the lesson. If we want to quiet the noise, we find a way to win, we have to take all the responsibility if we don’t.”

Miami was once again missing Andrew Wiggins, Kel’el Ware, Alec Burks, and Nikola Jovic as Spoelstra was looking for some answers in the rotations. Spoelstra went 10-deep as Rozier was the last to come off the bench and played under 13 minutes Friday.

With the close loss, Miami looks to quickly recover as they take on the Bulls Saturday night.