Anthony Edwards Drops 45 as Timberwolves Rout Heat 131-106, Spoil Giannis Antetokounmpo's Miami Debut

MIAMI

The first night of the season was supposed to belong to the new man in Miami. Giannis Antetokounmpo, unveiled in a Heat uniform after the June blockbuster trade that sent him from Milwaukee to Miami, scored the game's first basket 13 seconds in, scored Miami's first eight points, and had 21 by halftime, according to the Associated Press report of the game. Then Anthony Edwards took the night over completely. Edwards scored 45 points, hit nine 3-pointers and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Heat 131-106 on Wednesday night, opening their season with the kind of road performance that announces a team before the rest of the league has finished unpacking.

Edwards shot 16-for-29 from the floor and 9-for-17 from beyond the arc, Reuters reported, and he checked out for good with 3:51 remaining and Minnesota leading by 28. His 45 points were the most by a Timberwolves player in a season opener and marked his 125th career game with at least 30 points. The historical company is louder than the number itself: Edwards, who scored 41 in last season's opener at Portland, became just the third player in NBA history to record multiple 40-point games in season openers, joining Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan, according to Reuters and the AP. The NBA noted that Edwards is the first player ever with at least 45 points, 10 rebounds and five 3-pointers in a season opener.

A duel for a half, a rout after it

For two quarters, the opener delivered exactly the duel it promised. Minnesota opened 11-for-14 from the floor and led 27-19 after eight minutes, and Edwards and Antetokounmpo each scored 21 points in the first half. Miami pushed back in the second quarter and briefly took a 50-49 lead on a 3-pointer by Bobby Portis Jr. That was the Heat's last moment of control. Minnesota closed the half with Terrence Shannon Jr. hitting a pair of corner 3-pointers, Edwards turning a steal into a dunk, and LaMelo Ball scoring on a drive and adding two free throws to make it 69-59 at the break.

The run that decided the game straddled halftime. The AP reported that a six-minute burst beginning late in the second quarter and continuing into the third became a 23-7 run, turning a one-point Minnesota lead into a 78-61 edge, with Edwards and Ball combining for 17 points in the spurt while Miami missed six of nine shots and turned the ball over four times. Miami pulled within eight midway through the third quarter, and Minnesota answered with a 45-23 run in which Edwards scored 18 and the Heat missed 11 of 12 attempts from 3-point range. The Timberwolves led by as many as 30 points, at 123-93 with 4:29 remaining, and won the quarters 34-32, 35-27, 30-22 and 32-25.

The gap was built from deep — and on the glass

The box score explains the margin in two lines. Minnesota made 21 of its 50 3-point attempts; Miami made 8 of 33. That is a 63-24 advantage in points from beyond the arc, in a game decided by 25. And the Timberwolves outrebounded the Heat 52-34, including a 17-4 edge in offensive rebounds, repeatedly extending the possessions that produced those threes. Ball, acquired from Charlotte and making his Minnesota debut alongside Edwards in a remade backcourt, hit five 3-pointers and finished with 21 points and six assists. Jaden McDaniels scored 17, Ayo Dosunmu added 16 off a bench that produced 31 points, Jonathan Kuminga scored 12 and Shannon finished with 10. Rudy Gobert scored only five points but controlled the interior with 15 rebounds.

Antetokounmpo's debut line was genuinely strong, and that is what makes the result sting for Miami. He shot 13-for-19, scored 35 and heard MVP chants from the home crowd early in the game, Reuters reported. But the help around him never arrived from distance. Bam Adebayo scored 15 points, Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell added 11 apiece — Mitchell also had 10 assists against six of Miami's 18 turnovers — and Klay Thompson scored 10 points in his own Heat debut. After Antetokounmpo, no Miami starter reshaped the game, and the Heat have now dropped three consecutive season openers, something the AP noted has happened only three times in franchise history.

What an opener can — and cannot — prove

One game in October proves less than it feels like, and both teams know it. But openers do reveal construction. Minnesota's summer bet was that pairing Ball's playmaking with Edwards would raise the offense's ceiling without costing the defense its identity, and for one night the math was emphatic: two debuting or ascending guards combining for 66 points, a frontcourt that owned the glass, and a star who treated a marquee road game like a statement he had been waiting all summer to make. Edwards scoring 45 in an opener a year after scoring 41 in one suggests a player who has decided how his seasons will begin.

Miami's questions are just as clear, and they are not about its new star. Antetokounmpo delivered. The Heat's problem was everything around the delivery: a 24.2 percent night from three, a rebounding deficit of 18, and long stretches in which Minnesota's runs met no resistance. Erik Spoelstra gave Antetokounmpo freedom to handle the ball and attack in transition, and the Timberwolves still outscored Miami in every quarter. The rematch questions — spacing, second-unit scoring, and who guards Edwards when the scheme loads up — now belong to the film room.

Both teams return Friday. The Timberwolves visit the Orlando Magic, who lost their own opener 132-125 to Atlanta on Wednesday despite 35 points from Paolo Banchero. The Heat stay home to host the Detroit Pistons, looking for the first win of the Antetokounmpo era. Minnesota, for one morning at least, owns the loudest opening statement in the league: 131 points on the road, a franchise record from its star, and a debut spoiled in the building where the night was supposed to belong to somebody else.

Previously previewed this matchup of debuts before tip-off: Timberwolves Open at Heat in a Night of Debuts. More coverage on the Minnesota Timberwolves team page and the Previously sports front.