{"id":524873,"date":"2026-01-08T12:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524873\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:40:13","slug":"3-things-to-watch-for-in-cavs-at-timberwolves-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524873\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Things to watch for in Cavs at Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The <a href=\"http:\/\/fearthesword.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> are on the road for their first game against the Minnesota Timberwolves this season. The Wolves are 24-13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Let\u2019s get this out of the way. Minnesota is an elite basketball team that shouldn\u2019t go overlooked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Wolves don\u2019t get as much attention as the Oklahoma City Thunder, or even the Luka\/LeBron Los Angeles Lakers. But the Timberwolves have all the makings of a title contender, and are bordering on being a top-five offense and defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Minnesota ranks 6th in offense rating and 4th in defensive rating. They are 5th in net rating and hold the 8th-best record in the league. Led by a true-blooded superstar in Anthony Edwards, this is a team to watch out for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Cleveland has recently learned how important it can be to take care of the ball. They lost a close game to the Detroit Pistons after turning the ball over 17 times and conceding 21 points off turnovers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Then on Tuesday, against the Indiana Pacers, the Cavs rallied back for a victory on the road after turning it over 19 times and putting themselves into a hole. If it wasn\u2019t for a flawless game from Darius Garland, who had 29 points and 0 turnovers, the Cavs might have dropped both of these games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">They can\u2019t afford to turn it over at a high rate against the Wolves. Let\u2019s see if the Cavs can get back to protecting the ball tonight.<\/p>\n<p>Getting the bigs involved<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley are vital to this Cavs team. We\u2019ve seen time and time again that Cleveland might be at their best when the bigs are prominently featured. Getting them involved consistently is the challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Minnesota won\u2019t make this easy for the Cavs. Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle and Naz Reid are a hefty frontcourt that don\u2019t shy away from physicality. Not to mention wing defenders like Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, who shrink the margin for error and take away advantages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Playing through the bigs means Cleveland\u2019s guards have to create openings for them to be involved. It will take a dual effort from the back and frontcourt to keep the Cavalier offense from relying too heavily on three-point attempts. If the Cavs can get into the paint, they\u2019ll have a greater chance of winning this game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers are on the road for their first game against the Minnesota Timberwolves this season. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,64205,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-524873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers-discussion","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115859529781910520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}