Undefeated Minnesota is heading into Cleveland for its first back-to-back of the season, and the timing makes the Timberwolves Vs Cavaliers matchup harder to ignore. The Wolves have opened with three wins, but now they have to do it on tired legs against a Cleveland team that will have the advantage of rest and home court.
That is why the game is drawing attention now. Early in the season, the Cleveland Cavaliers are still trying to settle into the form that carried them deep into the East last spring, but they have already shown two very different sides of themselves: they choked away one game against the Philadelphia 76ers and barely hung on against the Brooklyn Nets. Minnesota, meanwhile, arrives with momentum after its last win, a night when it shot 15 for 31 from deep, or 48%, and Chris Finch used 11 players in non-garbage minutes.
Isaiah Evans has been part of all three of those wins, and that matters because Minnesota has not reached this point on a thin rotation. The Wolves have lost only three quarters so far, and two of those came in the fourth quarter of 20-plus point victories. They also lead the league in rebounding, which gives them a baseline edge even before the matchup turns into a test of depth, legs and execution.
Still, there is a crack in the résumé. Minnesota’s previous game was not clean in the areas that usually decide tight ones; the Raptors won the offensive rebounding and turnover battle against the Wolves, and Bones Hyland finished that contest with three points, three blocks and three rebounds. Against Cleveland, that kind of slippage is exactly where the size of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley becomes a problem, especially with Cleveland averaging eight and a half blocks through its first two games.
That front line gives the Cavaliers a clear identity at home, while Minnesota is being asked to prove its start is more than a hot shooting stretch. Kevin Calabro summed up the mood around the Wolves in one line: “Nothing but cord.” The next step is simple enough to name and hard enough to pull off — keep the undefeated start intact against a rested opponent that is built to make the paint crowded and the margins smaller.
