GT: Minnesota Timberwolves @ Cleveland Cavaliers

[Uncle Drew]

Impressive first-quarter scoring is a key reason why the Minnesota Timberwolves are off to their best start in 12 years.

Kevin Love is another.

Love and the Timberwolves look to get off to another strong start as they go for a fourth straight win Monday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Minnesota (3-0) is off to its best start since winning the first six games of 2001-02, and another productive first quarter could help move them closer to that franchise record.

The Timberwolves are averaging a league-best 37.3 points while hitting 55.2 percent from the floor -- 8 of 16 from beyond the arc -- in the opening quarter through the first three games. They got off to their best start yet Sunday, sinking 14 of 21 field goals to score 40 points in the opening period of a 109-100 victory at New York.

"This is such a fun team to play on," said guard Kevin Martin, who had a season-high 30 points while making all five 3-pointers. "Nobody is trying to lead the league in scoring here. Everybody has the big picture of getting to the playoffs."

A healthy Love would surely help after he was limited to 18 games last season due to various injuries, including a twice-broken right hand.

The All-Star forward seems to have put those injuries behind him, averaging 29.7 points and 14.7 rebounds while making 50.0 percent from the floor -- 8 for 21 from 3-point range -- this season.

He had a season-high 34 points, 15 boards and five assists against the Knicks.

"We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves because of the injuries," Love said. "So don't want to live in the past, don't want to live too far in the future, we just want to try to plan for Cleveland."

Love had 36 points and 13 rebounds in a 91-73 home win over the Cavaliers on Dec. 7. Minnesota completed the season sweep without him Feb. 11, winning 100-92 at Cleveland behind Ricky Rubio's 13 points, 10 assists and five steals.

The point guard, though, is coming off his worst performance of the season, making 3 of 11 from the field to finish with eight points and 10 assists.

The Cavaliers (1-2) hope to avoid a third straight loss after a season-opening 98-94 home win over Brooklyn.

They turned in their worst offensive performance of the season Saturday, shooting 34.9 percent from the floor -- including 3 of 15 from long range -- in an 89-74 loss at Indiana.

Still, coach Mike Brown came away feeling positive.

"As crazy as this sounds, I thought (Saturday) was our best offensive night, from the standpoint that the ball moved and bodies moved," he said. "Just watching the game, I thought we tried to play with some flow.

"I thought we tried to move the basketball. We had weak-side shots open. We had more of those than any other time."

Like the Cavs, Kyrie Irving is off to a slow start, averaging 15.3 points and 7.0 assists. The point guard averaged 22.5 points and 5.9 assists last season, and was a first-time All-Star.

Irving had 20 points and seven assists against the Timberwolves on Feb. 11, while Dion Waiters made all six of his shots to finish with 12 points.

Minnesota has won four of five against Cleveland after a nine-game losing streak in the series.

Jason Lloyd @JasonLloydABJ
Andrew Bynum will play tonight, said he expects to play in both halves. Obvious minutes increase

[Meticode]

Interested in seeing Irving against Rubio and Love against Thompson.

[FireMcFailPlease]

Interested to see if the Cavs can keep up

[JimmyMcAdocious]

Bennett will score a point tonight. 5 of them, even!

GuaranSheed it.

[FatComputerNerd]

Wild thing :rockon:

[Meticode]

Cavs out to a much better start, but they're getting back on defense late letting the Timberwolves run.

[Uncle Drew]

Now I get why the Wolves score so many points in the 1st, jesus. It takes them six seconds to get to our basket and hit a shot..

[MP.Trey]

If our defense keeps resulting in mid-range jumpshots from Corey Brewer, then I love our chances.

EDIT: Don't let Kevin Martin shoot tho.

[TheReturn]

Martin is money..

[Uncle Drew]

I don't know how Igor Kokoskov did it, but we're actually playing some decent offense now. :eek:

[Meticode]

Awesome to see everyone involved. Irving got a three and floater, Waiters drove to the basket and got two shots. Thompson took it took Love twice and made two baskets, Bynum backed Pekovic down and got a bounce on the hook shot showing he still can work down low and has strength to move big defenders.

[FireMcFailPlease]

well that was ugly

[Uncle Drew]

Held the Wolves to 23 points in the 1st. :rockon:

Kyrie: 7 points on 3-6 shooting, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal. He got the message.

[Meticode]

Happy with the first quarter. in the first three games this year the Wolves average 37 points in first quarter. The Cavaliers held them to 23 point while scoring 31 on their own.

[MP.Trey]

C.J.'s been lights out to start the season. Nice to see.

[Uncle Drew]

CJ on fire.

[andremiller07]

I don't see any reason why Derrick Williams cannot be a decent starting SF in the L. He's more than capable of defending SF's and he's got decent skills.

[MP.Trey]

Cavs coming out to play. :cheers:

[Meticode]

Cavaliers taking it to them.

[Uncle Drew]

Only thing missing is a Bennett FG. Feed the big fella.

[DuMa]

Barea vs Bynum again.

[andremiller07]

Andy V has been fire whenever I watch him shooting that middy and CJ Miles has gone berserk.

[La Frescobaldi]

seems like Adelman is confused by Cavs. They are not playing the typical NBA star ballhoggery.:lol

[MP.Trey]

Rubio is a menace. We gotta take care of the ball.

[La Frescobaldi]

Rubio is a menace. We gotta take care of the ball.
i think his secret is he stays so darn low. He gets tremendous speed that way, like a coiled spring. That and just years and years of experience

[NattyPButter]

Only thing missing is a Bennett FG. Feed the big fella.
He's play good D so doesn't bother me.

[RedBlackAttack]

Rubio is a menace. We gotta take care of the ball.
He's doing a good job of denying Kyrie the ball. On the other end, Kyrie is doing a pretty good job on him, too. Interesting game so far.

[RidonKs]

man ricky rubio's instincts are just awesome. he's not the quickest but he anticipates everything, on both sides

[Droid101]

Anthony Bennett field goal watch is still on!

0-14!

[Uncle Drew]

Kyrie triple double watch.

[Meticode]

Anthony Bennett field goal watch is still on!

0-14!
Actually ESPN shows he's 0-5 this game. Making him 0-17 for the season. :oldlol:

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/2991473/anthony-bennett

...I wonder what the longest shooting streak without making a shot is in NBA history.

[FireMcFailPlease]

well. Just gettin our asses kicked plain and simple..at least the rematch is next week.

[La Frescobaldi]

Actually ESPN shows he's 0-5 this game. Making him 0-17 for the season. :oldlol:

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/2991473/anthony-bennett

...I wonder what the longest shooting streak without making a shot is in NBA history.

dunno about over games but google found this
"In 1991 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tim Hardaway shot the ball 17 times and didn't make one of them."

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-terrible-sports-achievements-that-will-never-be-equaled_p2/#ixzz2jjKWPPMz

[Uncle Drew]

That was a really bad play from Dion. Kyrie was wide open in the corner...

[La Frescobaldi]

well. Just gettin our asses kicked plain and simple..at least the rematch is next week.
this is bad as far as stamina levels anywhere on the team!!

[RoseCity07]

When is Anthony Bennett going to make a field goal? Has he even made on field goal in his NBA regular season career? This is the number 1 pick? lol

[MP.Trey]

Bynum better get to teaching Kyrie how to shoot FT's. :lol

[Uncle Drew]

Nasty block from CJ.

[JimmyMcAdocious]

Stay a blowout so Bennett can either pad his preposterously awful streak or actually make a shot.

Still sticking to the 5 prediction.

[pnyozzzoo]

man rubio really cannot do a layup properly. :facepalm

[JimmyMcAdocious]

dunno about over games but google found this
"In 1991 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tim Hardaway shot the ball 17 times and didn't make one of them."

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-terrible-sports-achievements-that-will-never-be-equaled_p2/#ixzz2jjKWPPMz

Kidd missed 17 straight shots to end his career, if people remember his playoff drought.

[MP.Trey]

Stay a blowout so Bennett can either pad his preposterously awful streak or actually make a shot.

Still sticking to the 5 prediction.
I just want him to get the monkey off his back, hit one. Obviously he's not in great shape physically, but after this long of a streak, it's gotta be mental as well. Once he hits one, hopefully his confidence will rise and other scoring opportunities will open up.

[CavaliersFTW]

Andrew Beastnum taking care of business under the basket this game :bowdown:

[b1imtf]

How is Bynum looking?

[Eric Cartman]

Airball :lol

[KDthunderup]

How is Bynum looking?
ok, he is already getting double teamed

Anthony Bennet is ****ing woeful

[PJR]

Bennett is TERRIBLE :roll: :roll:

[FireDavidKahn]

Bennett:oldlol:

That was Jordan Crawford esque

[La Frescobaldi]

wolves so cold it's like they are carrying a big lump of ice to the North Pole but still steadily closing in on this...

[robert de niro]

bennett we aren't worthy :bowdown:

[Uncle Drew]

Bynum :bowdown: Signing of the off season, by far.

[B-Easy8]

Thats game.

Barea has done literally nothing all game and he and the rest of the bench gets kept out there for way too long.

I don't care if they are on a back to back, they can rest tomorrow.

[secund2nun]

They should have drafted Noel...he would have scored the same amount of points this season that Bennett will :roll:

[Droid101]

Stay a blowout so Bennett can either pad his preposterously awful streak or actually make a shot.

Still sticking to the 5 prediction.
What? Five games without a field goal?

[Uncle Drew]

Jesus Christ, we suck at fast breaks.

[FatComputerNerd]

Wtf is wrong with us!!!

[iTare]

That layup was uglyyyy

[robert de niro]

why is barea still in the court? :confusedshrug:

[La Frescobaldi]

this contest wins Ugly Game of the Year by both these teams

[B-Easy8]

This is a battle of garbage.

Unfortunately we are the more garbage team tonight.

[MP.Trey]

This is cringe worthy.

[DuMa]

mega choke

[Uncle Drew]

:oldlol:

We're blowing this.

[B-Easy8]

Wow.

Love and Irving are both playing like shit. Love needs to stop shooting 3's.

[Suguru101]

So Love is now a pretty good passer too? What is this? :bowdown:

[secund2nun]

Cleveland needs to lose this anyways. Tank for the lottery since the last #1 pick of the draft for Cleveland isn't looking so good lol

[Uncle Drew]

This is embarrassing.

[RidonKs]

brewer & williams at the 3 spot are crazy... awesome energy

[O_City_Thunder]

:facepalm :facepalm :facepalm

[Johnny Jones]

Irving :facepalm :facepalm

[Uncle Drew]

Sigh.

[NattyPButter]

CJ should had bad been in instead of Jack.

[MP.Trey]

We're gonna throw away this f*cking game. Good first half at least.

[RidonKs]

damn at least set a screen lol

[JimmyMcAdocious]

Wow, V fouled Love and then an offensive foul on Kyrie on the other end.:oldlol:

Love da clutch gawd?

[DuMa]

Love had a chance. just went long.

[O_City_Thunder]

Is Rubio hurt or something?

[Johnny Jones]

LOL

[FireMcFailPlease]

damn!

[FatComputerNerd]

Wow. We did not deserve this win.

[Uncle Drew]

No fvcking way.

[MP.Trey]

We are some lucky to come out with the win. Thought Love's shot was going down off the release, my heart sunk for a second haha.

[robert de niro]

:facepalm

[bdreason]

Love had a nice look. Cavs dodged a bullet there.

[handbanana]

wtf, is rubio injured? barea is an idiot.

[B-Easy8]

*** sakes.

He was shooting garbage 3's all game and he shoots 1 for the win.

Should have run a play for Martin. He would have gotten to the line at least.

[SoCalLakersFan1]

Is Rubio hurt or something?
Comeback started with Barea, better to try and finish with him too. Plus it looks like Rubio was 0-7.

[FireDavidKahn]

Is Rubio hurt or something?
Rubio was just awful today.

[Uncle Drew]

Never had a doubt. .500 woo.

[Meticode]

When the lead was 90-93 I was almost certain we'd lose. I was totally expecting that Love shot to go in with how HORRIBLE we played in the last 6 minutes. Unbelievable. I was pulling my hair out when Irving was ISOing at the end. They had their best offense in the game moving the ball and they totally went away from that in the last 3 minutes.

[FireMcFailPlease]

When the lead was 90-93 I was almost certain we'd lose. I was totally expecting that Love shot to go in with how HORRIBLE we played in the last 6 minutes. Unbelievable. I was pulling my hair out when Irving was ISOing at the end. They had their best offense in the game moving the ball and they totally went away from that in the last 3 minutes.
How do you think it feels to play horrible in the first 42 minutes of the game?

[B-Easy8]

How do you think it feels to play horrible in the first 42 minutes of the game?

This.

I don't understand how they played so badly for 3 and a bit quarters then just decide to start playing with 10mins to go. Adelman should get on them for that. He should also tell JJ to stop shooting everything.

[andremiller07]

Was suprised the Cav's bigs easily outplayed the Wolves big's did not expect that coming into the game and CJ Miles was a star.

[RedBlackAttack]

I thought the odd roatations were what nearly cost us this game. Cavs were up 16 with 5 minutes left. That was the time to bring the starters back in and finish it. Instead, Brown chose to continue with the bench and, two minutes later, it was down to 8 and the TWolves had all the momentum.

I think Brown thought the game was over and he could just finish things with his bench, giving the starters the rest of the night off. That assumption nearly cost us the game.

I'll take the win, though, even if we backed into it. You'll have nights like this in an 82-game season where things go perfectly for 42 minutes and the game still comes down to the wire. Winning them can be the difference between playoffs or the lottery at the end of the season. We would have lost this game last year, no doubt.

Couple notes...

*Kyrie is pretty clearly trying to go in a different direction this year. He's looking to pass first much of the time and playing much more within the flow. His defensive energy is also much better. I'm not concerned with the slow shooting start. That'll come around. I like his approach to this season (though too many unforced TOs tonight).

*Tristan continues being our best player through the first four games. He didn't even play well tonight and still had 12/11 while doing good work on Love.

*Bynum is slowly getting his legs under him. He had 10 points, 4 rebounds, several blocks and his presence just changes the game. Great signs from him so early in the season.

*I love what CJ has done so far, but no way he keeps it up. Dion needs more minutes. He's one of our most promising young talents and his defense has actually been good so far this year. There's no reason for him to play just 20 minutes, especially when Jack was struggling all night.

*Bennett looks completely overwhelmed offensively. Defensively, he's actually been pretty good, but man... he's about to have a nervous breakdown every time he touches the ball.


All told, I'm happy with the start to the season. We're still the second youngest roster in the NBA and both home wins (Nets/TWolves) were against quality opposition. The next step is figuring out how to take it on the road.


Good luck the rest of the way Minnesota fans. You have a fun team to watch.

[Droid101]

I wonder if opponents are focusing on him now. Like... if we can shut down this asshole first pick, we'll get paid in the future.

I'd like to hope so.

[FireMcFailPlease]

I thought the odd roatations were what nearly cost us this game. Cavs were up 16 with 5 minutes left. That was the time to bring the starters back in and finish it. Instead, Brown chose to continue with the bench and, two minutes later, it was down to 8 and the TWolves had all the momentum.

I think Brown thought the game was over and he could just finish things with his bench, giving the starters the rest of the night off. That assumption nearly cost us the game.

I'll take the win, though, even if we backed into it. You'll have nights like this in an 82-game season where things go perfectly for 42 minutes and the game still comes down to the wire. Winning them can be the difference between playoffs or the lottery at the end of the season. We would have lost this game last year, no doubt.

Couple notes...

*Kyrie is pretty clearly trying to go in a different direction this year. He's looking to pass first much of the time and playing much more within the flow. His defensive energy is also much better. I'm not concerned with the slow shooting start. That'll come around. I like his approach to this season (though too many unforced TOs tonight).

*Tristan continues being our best player through the first four games. He didn't even play well tonight and still had 12/11 while doing good work on Love.

*Bynum is slowly getting his legs under him. He had 10 points, 4 rebounds, several blocks and his presence just changes the game. Great signs from him so early in the season.

*I love what CJ has done so far, but no way he keeps it up. Dion needs more minutes. He's one of our most promising young talents and his defense has actually been good so far this year. There's no reason for him to play just 20 minutes, especially when Jack was struggling all night.

*Bennett looks completely overwhelmed offensively. Defensively, he's actually been pretty good, but man... he's about to have a nervous breakdown every time he touches the ball.


All told, I'm happy with the start to the season. We're still the second youngest roster in the NBA and both home wins (Nets/TWolves) were against quality opposition. The next step is figuring out how to take it on the road.


Good luck the rest of the way Minnesota fans. You have a fun team to watch.
Redemption next week!


Thanks. Your team is fun to watch when it clicked in the first half. You have some dangerous pieces.

[chips93]

is it just me, or did the cavs run some basic triangle stuff on a lot of bynums post ups in the first half? it got him a lot of space to go to work down low.


Dion needs more minutes. He's one of our most promising young talents and his defense has actually been good so far this year. There's no reason for him to play just 20 minutes, especially when Jack was struggling all night.

agreed on dion. i think you just need to throw him out there with the starters and let him play. when he comes back into the game, after a long rest on the bench, is when he is at his most selfish.

he checked into the game, just desperate to get some shots up, and he tooks some ugly jumpers.


*Bennett looks completely overwhelmed offensively. Defensively, he's actually been pretty good, but man... he's about to have a nervous breakdown every time he touches the ball.

dukedelonte said the same thing about bennetts defense but i dont see it. he gave up an awful offensive board to cunningham tonight, and zeller got some really easy buckets on him in charlotte.