Giannis Scores 35 in Heat Debut as Timberwolves Win 131-106

By Taki Panos

There are quiet debuts and loud ones, and Giannis Antetokounmpo's first regular-season game for the Miami Heat was loud in only one direction. The two-time MVP scored 35 points on 13-of-19 shooting at Kaseya Center on Wednesday night, and it still was not close: the Minnesota Timberwolves won 131-106 behind 45 points from Anthony Edwards, per the AP recap carried by NBA.com. The game tipped off at 7:30 PM in Miami, which was 2:30 AM on Thursday in Athens, so many Greek fans woke up to a box score that flattered Giannis far more than his team.

If you missed the summer saga, Giannis wanted a fresh start after his long run with the Milwaukee Bucks and landed in Miami, with Tyler Herro part of the price, as NBA.com columnist Shaun Powell noted. This is his 14th NBA season. The preseason gave Heat fans reasons to dream, from the poster dunk on Yves Missi on his first night in Miami to a near triple-double against Brooklyn. Wednesday was the first night that counted in the standings.

For a half, it looked like it might be a fair fight. Minnesota led 34-32 after the first quarter and 69-59 at the break, per ESPN's box score, and Giannis had 21 of his 35 points by halftime, the AP reported. He lived in the paint, where Miami actually outscored Minnesota 54-38 for the night according to NBA.com's team stats, and Powell wrote that Giannis mostly had his way against Rudy Gobert and the Wolves defense. That is the encouraging part, and it is not a small one.

The trouble started late in the second quarter. Minnesota went on a 23-7 burst that stretched into the third and turned a one-point lead into a 78-61 cushion, the AP wrote, with Edwards and LaMelo Ball combining for 17 points while Miami missed six of nine shots and turned it over on four straight trips. The Heat clawed back within eight midway through the third, and then the Wolves answered with a 45-23 run in which Miami missed 11 of 12 threes. The game was settled long before the final horn.

Credit where it is due. Edwards was outstanding, with 45 points on 16-of-29 shooting, nine of 17 from deep and 10 rebounds in about 33 minutes, per ESPN. He made more threes by himself than the entire Heat roster, which went 8-of-33. According to the AP, he joined Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan as the only players with at least 40 points in more than one season opener, after scoring 41 in last year's opener at Portland. Ball added 21 in his own Minnesota debut, and Gobert grabbed 15 rebounds.

Here is the full Giannis line from the ESPN and RealGM box scores: 35 points, 13-of-19 from the field, 0-of-2 from three, 9-of-14 at the line, six rebounds, one assist, one steal and three turnovers in about 30 minutes, with a minus-11. The efficiency is the headline. The single assist is the footnote, and it says more about cold teammates than about his passing.

That is the real story of the night, and Powell put it bluntly for NBA.com: Miami needs shooters. The Heat hit 24 percent from three to Minnesota's 42 percent, and the Wolves outscored them 63-24 from beyond the arc while winning the rebounding battle 52-34, per the AP. Klay Thompson and Tim Hardaway Jr. went a combined 4-of-13 from deep. When the floor shrinks like that, even a player built like Giannis runs into a crowd every time he puts the ball on the floor.

Fit is the other early question. Bam Adebayo finished with 15 points and seven rebounds but was a minus-28, the lowest mark on the team, per ESPN, and Powell pointed out that neither big man is a deep threat, so they will sometimes share the same patch of lane. Davion Mitchell did his part with 11 points and 11 assists, and Andrew Wiggins added 11 points. On defense, this pairing should be a nightmare for opponents. On offense, it still looks like homework.

The frustration showed late. With about seven minutes left and Miami down 20, Giannis drove into four collapsing defenders and was later called for a flagrant foul for an elbow on Terrence Shannon Jr., NBA.com reported. Afterwards he did not point fingers. "I felt like we didn't make it as tough as possible for him," he said of Edwards, adding, "Our effort has to be better. It starts with me," per NBA.com. That is the right message from the new leader of a locker room, on night one.

A little perspective helps. The AP noted that Miami has now lost three straight season openers, only the third time that has happened in franchise history, while Minnesota has won six of its last eight openers. Powell called the Wolves a 50-win team waiting to happen, so this was not a soft landing. One loss in October is one loss in October, and fans who have followed Giannis for 13 seasons know how quickly he adapts once he gets a feel for the people around him. Our piece on NBA GMs naming Sasha Vezenkov the best player outside the league has more of the wider Greek basketball picture.

My take: I would not panic, and I would not pretend it was fine either. Thirty-five points on 19 shots in a debut is exactly what Miami traded for. What the Heat did not show is a way to punish defenses that pack the paint against him, and until somebody on the wing starts making open threes, Giannis will keep seeing walls instead of lanes. The talent is real. The spacing is not there yet. Nobody fixes that in one night, but somebody in the Miami front office should probably keep the phone close.

Next up, the Heat host the Detroit Pistons on Friday, while Minnesota visits Orlando the same night, per NBA.com. I will be watching whether Miami finds a reliable second scorer and whether Giannis gets cleaner looks in the half court. For every Giannis box score this season, plus the rest of the Greek athletes making noise around the world, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Game one is done. Eighty-one to go.

Sources: ESPN, NBA.com, The Associated Press, RealGM.

Image: Giannis Antetokounmpo at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, photo by Erik Drost via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).