MIAMI — The Giannis Antetokounmpo part was a given. And the Miami Heat’s prime offseason addition gave a prime-time performance.
The question when it came to a potential season of contention was the remainder of the roster.
That remained in question after Wednesday night’s 131-106 season-opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at Kaseya Center.
After recent seasons of attempting to singularly lift the Milwaukee Bucks, Antetokounmpo found himself not only again in the midst of heavy lifting, but this time also second best on the court.
While Antetokounmpo closed with 35 points on 13-of-19 shooting, the star of the nationally televised showcase was Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, who closed with 45 points, shooting 9 of 17 on 3-pointers.
Antetokounmpo became the third Heat player with at least 30 points in a season opener. LeBron James scored 37 in the 2011 season opener and 31 in the 2010 opener. Tim Hardaway scored 32 in the 1999 season opener.
But not a night to celebrate individual numbers.
“I don’t know what it is, you know, the excitement of the first game of the season,” Antetokounmpo said of such an uneven performance. “But we’ve got to be better. We have to be better. Our offense has got to be better. We’ve got to trust one another.”
Edwards was supported by 21 points from prime Timberwolves offseason addition LaMelo Ball.
“We’re going to have to step up our defense,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We know that. And it’s going to have to be all across the board.”
Beyond Antetokounmpo’s offense, the Heat got 15 points from Bam Adebayo, as well as 11 points and 11 assists from Davion Mitchell, who also had five turnovers.
“We’ve got to have our swarming defense,” Adebayo said. “I feel like we weren’t swarming as much as I would have liked. I feel like we showed spurts of that every once in a while.”
The Heat now have Thursday off, before a back-to-back set of the Detroit Pistons at home on Friday night and the Saturday night at the Charlotte Hornets.
“None of us like to be humbled like that,” Spoelstra said. “We have a lot of competitors in the locker room. So we’ll get to it. We’ll get to the film and do what we need to do.”
Simply not good enough, Mitchell said.
“We didn’t stick to our principles,” he said. “Throughout the course of the game, I felt like we were always trying to make a play, and we weren’t kind of trusting the things that we’d done.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday night’s game:
1. Game flow: The Heat trailed 34-32 at the end of the opening period and 69-59 at halftime. The Timberwolves then moved to a 17-point lead early in the third period.
While the Heat pushed back with a 9-0 run early in the third, they still went into the fourth down 99-81.
From there, the Timberwolves pushed their lead to 23 early in the final period, quashing any Heat hopes of a comeback bid.
“They dominated the turnovers, they dominated the offensive glass, they dominated the three-point line,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat closing with 19 turnovers and beaten 17-4 on the offensive glass.
2. Giannis time: Antetokounmpo opened the scoring with a 17-foot pullup jumper and then, when fouled on the Heat’s second possession, received “M-V-P!” chants while at the time making both free throws.
Antetokounmpo scored the Heat’s first eight points, before Klay Thompson converted a 3-pointer.
Antetokounmpo played the first 5:32, before being subbed out in favor of Bobby Portis Jr.
His second shift came alongside the reserve corps of Portis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Pelle Larsson and Nikola Jovic.
The respect was such from Spoelstra that he used an early challenge, on a charge called on Antetokounmpo with 1:49 left in the opening period, a challenge the Heat lost, therefore losing the ability to challenge the balance of the game.
Antetokounmpo closed the first quarter with 14 points and was at 21 at halftime.
Later, Antetokounmpo was called for his fifth foul with 7:09 to play and the Heat down 20, on a play that was upgraded to a flagrant foul upon video review.
And now, Antetokounmpo said, on to the next one.
“It’s like a 10-minute disappointment,” he said of how much this one will linger. “But you’ve got to look to the next game. We have a very good team coming in, Detroit on Friday.
“We’re going to come in tomorrow, get better, watch film. We have to be better. We have to play better. And hopefully now on Friday we can respond.”
3. Klay’s way: After a 3-of-20 preseason from the 3-point line, Thompson made his first two regular-season attempts. Thompson’s first conversation from beyond the arc was the 2,900th of his career.
That start had Spoelstra leaving him in the game even after he was called for his second four 2:58 into the opening period.
It went downhill from there.
Thompson was forced to the bench with his third foul with 1:56 left in the second period and then again after being called for his fourth 2:52 into the second half.
Those two early 3-pointers were his only points through three quarters, closing with 10 points.
Adebayo said this was about more than any single player.
“I just think the ball, we didn’t move it like we usually do,” he said. “Stagnant, like this fog where fatigue sets in.”
4. Bench woes: As the Heat cycled through their rotation, Portis showed his versatility, at times at center, and then played at small forward when cast alongside Adebayo and Antetokounmpo.
While the Bucks were looking to unload Portis’ salary in the Antetokounmpo trade, the Heat have stressed that Portis is viewed as anything like a throw-in.
His seven points were the most among the Heat’s reserves at halftime, closing with that total, on a night the Heat’s reserves weren’t nearly good enough.
5. Twos for threes: Among the initial concerns in acquiring Antetokounmpo but moving off Tyler Herro and Norman Powell during the offseason was the question of sufficient 3-point shooting.
The Heat stood 6 of 16 on 3-pointers at halftime, compared to the Timberwolves’ 12 of 26. Going into the fourth quarter, the Heat were being outscored 41-21 on 3-pointers.
It ended with the Heat 8 of 33 from beyond the arc. The Timberwolves, fueled by Edwards’ long-range barrage, closed 21 of 50.
Included in the Heat’s 3-point shooting was 1 of 7 from Hardaway, 1 of 5 from Adebayo 1 of 4 from Andrew Wiggins and 0 for 3 from Jovic.
“We didn’t look like us offensively,” Spoelstra said.
“I would say the majority of our possessions were either drive, shot, or one-pass shot. That’s certainly not the way it looked during the preseason.”