Wolves double up Heat on boards, still lose 103-92 in Miami

Go figure this: The Wolves grabbed 21 of the first 24 rebounds Tuesday night in Miami, held a 28-10 advantage by halftime, lapped them 52-24 by game's end and Kevin Love outrebounded the Heat all by himself for most of the night and...

The Wolves still lost, ending this quick two-game Florida trip 0-2 with a 103-92 loss tonight at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Here is the game story from Tuesday's game. focusing on Love's call for the Wolves to get tougher and more physical.

And here is the notebook from tonight on Ricky Rubio not playing tonight and other stuff.

There also should be post-game locker room video up here in the morning as well.

"I don't know how many times I've seen that, where you get doubled up on rebounding and still are able to escape with a win," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "That's a tough team. They're unique, relentless on the glass. There's not that many teams like that, that have multiple guys who just continue to hit the glass.

"We improved on the first half, when it was 28 to 10. I don't think I've ever seen that number. They were absolutely annihilating us on the glass."

Two of them had something to do with guys named LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

James came within three rebounds of a triple-double and Wade gave Wolves rookie Alexey Shved a hard dose of reality,

Wade scored all of his 24 points in the first three quarters, then sat down.

James then took over, playing the entire fourth quarter -- and 42 minutes for the night -- when the Heat ran its lead to 19 with 7:10 left before the Wolves got back within eight in the final two minutes no closer.

You knew it was a blowout when Lou Amundson entered the game with 7:09 left.

The Wolves, of course, were playing shorthanded yet again.

This time, they only had three healthy guard -- starters Shved and Luke Ridnour, backup J.J. Barea -- and Rick Adelman improvised by playing power forward Dante Cunningham at shooting guard some against Wade.

The Wolves' rebounding bulge also didn't stand up because the Heat countered with some lopsided numbers of their own:

* The Heat had 14 blocked shots, the Wolves had one.

* The Heat had 24 fast-break points, the Wolves had eight and once again they lamented about not getting back in transition defense.

Tuesday's game was the start of a three-game stretch where the Wolves play teams with three of the league's six best records.

Oklahoma City -- and its 11-game winning streak -- is Thursday night in a special 6 p.m. TNT game at Target Center and then they play the Knicks in Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon.

The Wolves will take tomorrow off.