Nikola Jovic for the win, as Heat, Tyler Herro push past Timberwolves 95-94

MINNEAPOLIS – The good teams find a way. The Miami Heat found a way to be just that on Sunday night.

Again competitive against a quality Western Conference opponent, the Heat this time found a way to finish, pushing past the Minnesota Timberwolves 95-94 Sunday night.

On a night when the Heat lacked much in the way of offense, they found points when needed most, with forward Nikola Jovic, on a night he was moved to the bench, closing the scoring on a driving layup that turned into a 3-point play with 7.8 seconds to play.

After compelling competitive losses to the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns last week, the Heat this time, in the injury absence of Jimmy Butler, appeared headed to a similar fate when Minnsota forward Jaden McDaniel converted a putback basket with nine seconds to play to put the Timberwolves up two.

Up 12 early and ahead at halftime, the Heat again appeared to be caught up in a talent deficit.

Instead, they found a way back from down eight with 4:59 to play.

Tyler Herro led the Heat with 26 points, on a night the Heat got Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kevin Love back in the mix. The Heat also got nine points, seven rebounds and seven assists from center Bam Adebayo.

The Timberwolves got 22 points from Anthony Edwards and 17 from Julius Randle.

The Heat’s six-game trip continues with a Tuesday night game against the Detroit Pistons, before concluding with a pair of games against the Indiana Pacers.

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:

1. Closing time: Through all of the uneven play in the second half, the Heat stood within 78-77 with 7:14 to play after a Terry Rozier 3-point play.

But after three Timberwolves 3-pointers, including two by Edwards, the Timberwolves moved to an eight-point lead midway through the final period.

A Herro 3-pointer, his fourth of the night, got the Heat back within 88-83 with 4:15 to play, with a clear-path foul on Minnesota then leading to a four-point Heat possession capped by three Herro throws while fouled on a 3-point attempt.

From there, the Heat eventually got to the line down 92-90 with 30 seconds to play, with Rozier making both free throws to tie it.

That’s when McDaniels scored his putback for a 94-92 lead with nine seconds left.

But that also is when the Heat broke Jovic free for a layup. Fouled on the play, Jovic converted the ensuing free throw for a 95-94 Heat lead with 7.8 seconds to play.

With a foul to give, the Heat caused a reset with 3.7 seconds to play.

And with that, Timberwolves guard Mike Conley was off with a jumper and the Heat found a way.

2. Game flow: The Heat led 27-20 at the end of the first quarter and 52-51 at halftime, after earlier going up 12 in the second period.

But that’s when, like so many of the Heat’s games this young season, the game changed, this time a 15-0 run helping push the Timberwolves to a 71-68 lead going into the fourth. The Heat went 6:32 without a point during that Minnesota surge.

The third-quarter struggle was a moment that cried out for Butler’s ability to get to the foul line to stem the tide. Instead, he remained sidelined by the ankle sprain that put him out in the first quarter of Friday night’s loss to the Denver Nuggets.

This time the Heat’s third quarter added up to 16 points on 6-of-20 shooting that included 2 of 11 on 3-pointers.

3. Lineup revision: With Butler sidelined, the Heat had to alter their starting lineup.

But Spoelstra did not stop there, in addition to starting Haywood Highsmith in place of Butler, Spoelstra also made a change at power forward, inserting Love into the starting lineup in his first appearance of the season, and moving Nikola Jovic out of the first five for the first time since last season’s playoffs.

The rest of the starting lineup again was rounded out by Herro, Adebayo and Rozier, but Rozier was forced to the bench with two fouls just 3:22 into the game.

Love proved helpful on the boards, while Highsmith did his part with active hands and steals.

4. Rotation revision: With Rozier’s early foul trouble, Josh Richardson played as sixth man, perhaps opening a window into Spoelstra’s perspective at backup point guard.

From there, first-round pick Kel’el Ware got the call for the third game in a row as the first big man off the bench, immediately recording a dunk and blocked shot upon entering.

Jaquez and Duncan Robinson followed, as did Jovic, who this time played as 10th man.

By the early stages of the second period, the Heat already were 11 deep, with second-round pick Pelle Larsson entering.

It was the first action in over a week for Jaquez, who had battled gastroenteritis. Love had been away from the team due to a personal matter.

 5. Butler’s status: As for Butler, he remains on the trip.

“Right now, he’s just focused on treatment and doing whatever he has to do to get back out there,” Spoelstra said. “We don’t have a timeline right now, but he’s with us.”

Spoelstra would not commit to Butler returning on the trip that runs through next Sunday’s game in Indiana.

But he also did not rule it out.

“I don’t want to say one way or another,” Spoelstra said. “I know he’s not playing tonight and then we’ll just continue to gauge his progress. But he’s able to work around the clock, so that helps.”