Reliable and sick contributors in Cavaliers’ road loss to Wolves
By Dalton Livesay
The Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t keep up in what was a poor shooting performance in the 4th quarter during Saturday night’s matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was the Cavaliers’ fifth-straight road game and the team ended the trip with a record of 2-and-3.
The Timberwolves’ 7-footer Rudy Gobert, who had averaged a double-double in his last five games, only played 13 minutes of action. Sounds like a golden opportunity for the Cavs to have taken advantage and finished this road-game trip with a positive record, right?
All seemed well when the Cavaliers were coming off a 10-nothing run in the 3rd quarter, making it a 67-53 game, but shortly after the momentum would start to swing the Wolves’ way when the Cavaliers went cold late in the ballgame.
The Cleveland Cavaliers got cold and sloppy Saturday night and ended up losing.
Cleveland finished the third quarter 41.2 percent from the field on 7-of-17 shooting. The fourth quarter was better if we’re talking about overall field goal percentage (50.0), but the team shot a horrendous 1-of-9 from behind the arc in the final quarter of the game.
The Cavs carelessly turned the ball over 18 times throughout the game, nine in each half to be exact. Considering the circumstances, it’s disappointing the Cavaliers couldn’t pull this one out and in the postgame presser J.B. Bickerstaff mentioned, “We didn’t play well enough to win. The Timberwolves out-played us, and I think it’s that simple.”
The ball club handed the Timberwolves 28 points-off-turnovers, the most among any team that competed on Saturday, which lead to 21 fast-break points. Anthony Edwards and company finished with the highest field-goal percentage (56.3) among all teams on Saturday. They let the Cavs have it in the fourth quarter going (73.7) percent from the floor on 14-of-19 shooting.
It is frustrating for the Cavs and their fans when these are the games that the Cavaliers should be, perhaps need to be winning in order to obtain a higher seed in the 2023 NBA playoffs this coming April. Let’s look at one reliable stud and a dud you have to tip your cap to while trying to put this loss in the rearview.