MINNEAPOLIS _ Erik Spoelstra allowed his team to celebrate Thanksgiving with a late flight Thursday to Minneapolis. But he wasn't allowing anyone to celebrate the potential boost of Wednesday's victory at AmericanAirlines Arena that snapped the Boston Celtics' 16-game winning streak.
"I don't care what it can do," he said at Friday morning's shootaround at Target Center. "I just want to see our guys focused and their mindset right for this morning and then we'll get on to the next one."
The next one was Friday night's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a 109-97 victory that allowed the Heat to get back to .500, at 9-9, at the start of this four-game trip.
Tripped up by neither tryptophan nor success, the Heat stood tall against the challenge of Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Town and again stood their ground in the third quarter, just as they did Wednesday against the Celtics, after frittering away so many previous leads in that period this season.
Goran Dragic again provided a solid start, with 15 of his 20 points in the first half. Hassan Whiteside again provided a double-double, with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and quality ball movement again led to quality 3-point looks, including six conversions from beyond the arc for Wayne Ellington and five from Dragic. Dion Waiters added 17 points.
The Timberwolves were forced to reshuffle their rotation with starting point guard Jeff Teague out due to a sore right Achilles, moving Aaron Brooks into their starting lineup. Minnesota also was without reserve forward Nemanja Bjelica, due to a sore foot. Bjelica entered the night leading the NBA with his .512 3-point percentage, at .611 from the field at Target Center this season.
The Wolves further adjusted when Tyus Jones opened the second half at point guard.
The Heat continued with their opening lineup of Whiteside, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Waiters and Dragic.
The Heat took an 81-70 advantage into the fourth quarter and then stretched their lead to 20 midway through final period.
Whiteside already had his double-double by the start of the final period. Waiters had 17 points through three periods.
It wasn't until 8:15 remained in the second quarter that Towns, defended most of the night by Winslow, scored his first basket. Winslow succeeded with an aggressive fronting approach, largely keeping Towns out of the post.
With Ellington converting a pair of 3-pointers in the second period and also converting all three free throws on a three-shot foul, the Heat pushed to a 13-point lead in the second quarter before moving to a 58-48 halftime lead.
Dragic had 15 points at the intermission, shooting 4 of 6 on 3-pointers, with the Heat 10 of 21 from beyond the arc at the intermission.
The Heat opened 9 of 11 from the field to move to a quick 14-point lead, shooting 2 of 14 the balance of the opening period, which ended with them up 28-24.
The Heat pushed to a 25-11 lead midway through the opening period. But after Dragic and Whiteside went to the bench, the Wolves scored 13 consecutive points to move within 25-24. An Ellington 3-pointer ended Minnesota's run.
The game concluded the two-game season series.
The Timberwolves won the previous meeting, 125-112, in overtime on Oct. 30 at AmericanAirlines Arena, when the Heat played in the injury absence of Whiteside.
The Timberwolves were seeking to sweep the season series for the first time since 2003-04.
The Heat entered having won eight of their previous nine visits to the Target Center, including the previous two.
The Heat were coming off Wednesday's 104-98 victory over the visiting Celtics.
The Timberwolves entered having won four of their previous six, coming off Wednesday's 124-118 victory over the visiting Magic.
The Wolves entered 6-2 at home this season, tying the third-best home start in franchise history (7-1 in 1998-99 and '01-02).
