2 weeks Ago By Jace Frederick / St. Paul Pioneer Press
Anthony Edwards returned after missing a game with hip soreness and picked up right where he left off offensively Monday night in Cleveland. Minnesota’s all-star guard poured in 44 points, including 18 in the third quarter — good for his third consecutive 40-plus point game, a franchise record. ADVERTISEMENT And it wasn’t nearly enough for the Timberwolves to combat the top team in the Eastern Conference.
Because Minnesota had no answer for any question the Cavaliers presented on the other end. The Wolves surrendered 30-plus points in each of the first three frames in a 128-107 defeat. For the second time in less than a month, they could not stop Cleveland.
The Cavaliers shot 51% from the field and knocked down 17 triples. Evan Mobley, who didn’t play at Target Center in the mid-January meeting, led the Cavaliers’ charge with 28 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots. Jarrett Allen also had a double-double, and Donovan Mitchell poured in 23 points.
So Minnesota could hardly afford the hole it dug itself to open the contest. The Wolves scored just 12 points in the opening frame after missing their first 16 shots from the field — tying an NBA record for consecutive misses to open an affair — before Edwards, who started 1 for 10 from the field himself before catching fire, finally hit a 3-pointer with less than three minutes to play in the opening stanza. Minnesota was scoreless with five minutes to play in the quarter before Rudy Gobert split a pair of free throws.
“The majority of the threes (we missed) I thought were good looks. They didn’t go in. They all looked short,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters of the start.
“On the defensive end, I thought we got stops. But they got offensive rebounds. This (Cleveland) team, when you watch them and study them, they usually beat teams with one, big run.
And they got that run in the first quarter, right out of the gate.” Edwards proved to be the antidote for the struggling offense. He scored 14 points in the second quarter before pouring in those 18 in the third.
ADVERTISEMENT But even at that point, Minnesota (30-24) was merely scoring alongside the Cavaliers (43-10). The Wolves still lost both of those frames. The dominant defense evident for chunks of Minnesota’s last three outings was nowhere to be found against Cleveland’s elite offense.
Cleveland is often a team you have to score against to beat. Minnesota’s slow start largely eliminated that from the realm of possibility. Outside of Edwards, who hit eight triples, Minnesota shot 4 for 24 from beyond the arc.
The Wolves finished with just 17 assists, compared to Cleveland’s 27. The loss was Minnesota’s second-largest of the season, and just the fifth of more than 10 points. “I didn’t like much about us tonight,” Finch said.
“I thought we would kind of figure out how to get into the game. I didn’t like our toughness tonight, I didn’t like our offense at all. I thought it just kind of bogged down.
“Their switching did some of that, but I didn’t think we were super intelligent on that side of the floor.” Finch said. “I didn’t like our resistance when it mattered.
We’ve been playing way better than that. So there wasn’t a lot to like about tonight.” ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies.
Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here ..
