Recap: Wolves 127, Cavs 122 (or, Seismic Shifts)

Monday’s tilt in the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse was a liquid affair, a sloshing, almost formless game. The Cavs were the molten hot team in the first quarter, pouring in 37 points in the frame, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the Timberwolves’ collective explosion of threes and fast breaks. The Dawgs dug themselves a 23 point deficit in the third quarter, making it look like it might be an early evening for the home team.

For a squad riddled with injuries, it might have made sense to succumb after three quarters to the free jazz and irrepressible tempo of the Timberwolves’ youth. They might have treated the fourth quarter as an audition for their latest 10-day guard pickup, Tim Frazier (2 points, 1 assist  & 1 turnover in four minutes of action), or brought in seldom-seen Ed Davis for extended garbage time and some vengeance in the form of hard screens against Patrick Beverley and Co..

But the Cavs refused to slide gently into that neon green whirlpool, and mounted a comeback, following what is becoming a familiar pattern of late 3rd quarter and early 4th quarter offensive eruptions from Cedi Osman and Kevin Love, complemented by defensive mettle from Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Even in the loss, they gave the raucous fans their money’s worth and gave fans around the world a reason to shout, to hope, and to spill some of their weekday beverages of choice.

Kevin Love merited and received extended run in the fourth, and Brandon Goodwin put up another gutsy and competent performance. But it was all sort of discombobulated, and not enough to get the Cavs over the line. A half-dozen broken possessions, missed opportunities, and turnovers amid the third quarter comeback came back to haunt the Cavs. They needed to build a lead and instead they met the Wolves just at the end, essentially trying to get to overtime rather than win outright.

The officials sent the Cavs to the line often and gave the home team some help with techs on the sassy Wolves, but the zebras also made a number of mystifying calls (resulting in points) that J.B. never got around to challenging. And so the Cavs, drenched in effort from what might be called “frustratingly meaningful games” ultimately lost in a game that they had given themselves a legitimate shot at winning.

The Guards

Brandon Goodwin had an outstanding game, probably his best yet as a Cavalier. Eight points, five assists, and two superb defensive stops in the first quarter got him off to a good start.

Cannot understate how good Brandon Goodwin played tonight. 17/4/12 2 steals and 1 turnover. Literally made like 1 or 2 mistakes all night. Honestly didn't have the ball in his hands enough.

— HoopsDogg (@oldseaminer) March 1, 2022

In the second half, Goodwin failed to find an open Love a couple of times, but the point guard played with freedom poise. In the grand scheme of things, he’s an improvement on last year’s backup guards and has, to paraphrase the CtB comment boards, more mangos than Pangos. His attempted block on a first-quarter T-wolves breakaway was exceptionally athletic.

Isaac Okoro and Lamar Stevens (remember him?) combined for a modest 10 points on 2-7 shooting. Stevens looked rusty in his five minutes of action. Okoro again asserted himself in critical moments. The Cavs’ second year shooting guard hit a clutch 3 from the wing with 1:32 left and had a great hustle play for a jump ball (which he tapped to Osman for a huge three) with about :33 left in the fourth. No one arrives at Cavs-Wolves games hyping the Okoro-Anthony Edwards head-to-head (perhaps they should, since Atlanta is the center of the world), but Isaac shone more when the lights were brightest in this game.

Trying to find some kind of defensive solutions for the slippery Wolves in the third quarter, J.B. went with a Mobley-Allen-Cedi-Okoro-Stevens lineup. Newbie Tim Frazier drained his one and only mid-range attempt, had little sense of the Cavs’ offense, and is unlikely to be around after Rajon Rondo’s return. How many wins can the Cavs salvage or muddle through until they get their top-caliber guards back?

D’Angelo Russell shot at a relatively low volume for him, ending with 25 points. The Cavs nearly got Patrick Beverley to foul out, but the Wolves’ own junkyard dog stayed on the floor and ended up blocking the Cavs’ final (as it turns out, meaningless) shot attempt at the buzzer, ending the game with 11 points (3-6 from distance) and three blocks.

The Bigs

After his two solid prior outings, Lauri Markkanen played some good defense but never looked comfortable offensively in this game. He ended with 10 points on 1-6 shooting from three, 5-6 from the line.  Both Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley had solid games, battling against Karl Anthony-Towns and the unheralded but consistently OK Naz Reid.

Kevin Love paced the Cavs with an impressive 26 points on 5-10 shooting from three, and achieved perfection (7-7) from the charity stripe. Without Rondo or Garland in the game, Love clearly has got a vision for how the offense is to run, and occasionally shows flashes of frustration when the ball doesn’t move or swing accordingly. LeBron James always gets plaudits for his postgame photographic memory of specific possessions, but KLove’s presser went through a couple of examples along the same lines. Leadership in action:

However, neither Love nor the Cavs had a first-half defensive answer for another Pac-12 product with Pacific Northwest roots, Jaden McDaniels. The lithe 21-year-old forward grew up near the Seattle airport and did a “baffling, enigmatic” year at the University of Washington before being drafted. In Cleveland he connected repeatedly from outside, ending the game with an ultra-efficient line of 17 points (6-9 shooting) in 18 minutes of action.

Randoms

The Cavs shot 85% from the line, going 29-34. More, please.

Fan/stan logic: “If the Cavs are almost winning games against Western Conference playoff contenders with  Brandon Goodwin at the helm, imagine how good they will be when Darius/Caris/Rajon are back in the rotation.” What this misses is the essential question of continuity, chemistry, reading plays and learning one another — teamwork, in other words. Readers can do the math, but it feels like the Cavs have now played more games without LeVert than with him in the lineup since he was picked up; probably same for Rondo. Can the Cavs win a first-round series or a play-in game if Goodwin plays 38 minutes? These last few games seem to indicate that the answer is “maybe,” but probably better not to have to get to that point.

#Cavs GM Mike Gansey discusses Darius Garland’s bone bruise in his back, whether there were any thoughts to hold him out of All-Star and if it’s something Garland will be dealing with the rest of the way.

“There’s nothing structural. It’s day to day”https://t.co/26dwvnpa60

— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) March 1, 2022

Led by Lauri Markkanen’s five turnovers, Cleveland coughed up the ball 20 times and is now 28th in the league in the turnovers metric. Point Cedi was again an experiment with mixed results (3 turnovers to 5 assists), but he does give the Cavs more offensive options. As the Timberwolves TV crew said ruefully after Cedi’s final three, “He’s ready for the moment.” Fortunately the gouge taken to his right eye from the scrap vs. the Wizards seems to be healing up.

Love how much Cedi seems invested in this group. I just know these guys really care and want to win. https://t.co/iBm0UN43GW

— Cavs:TheBlog (@CavsTheTweets) March 1, 2022

Probably the less said about the officiating and “rip-through” calls, the better — but Nate Smith was persuasive about the Cavs coaching staff and their diffident approach to challenges this year.

The modified title of this recap (“Seismic Shifts”) comes from a fragment of a Minneapolis Star-Tribune article on the game, accompanied by a short profile of J.B. Bickerstaff as an “ex-Gopher” and mainly sourced to friendly comments from Taurean Prince and Timberwolves coach Chris Finch.

The Cavs are now done with the Timberwolves for the year, having split their series. Your correspondent (in’shallah) may get to a Minnesota game later this spring in the Target Center as the playoff race continues to round into form. The Wolves and the Cavs combined for what ended up being a good show in this contest and one hopes that both teams can put together a spring torrent of games down the stretch of the season. Go Cavs!