MINNEAPOLIS – After one of their worst losses of the National Basketball Association (NBA) season, the Minnesota Timberwolves have put together one of their best stretches.
Minnesota will go for their fourth win in a row when they tip off against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Jan 8 (Jan 9, Singapore time) in Minneapolis. It is the start of a home-and-home series between the teams, who will travel to Cleveland for a rematch on Jan 10.
The Timberwolves are coming off a 28-point win over the Miami Heat on Jan 6. It was the third straight victory since Minnesota were outhustled in a 24-point loss against the Atlanta Hawks on Dec 31.
Timberwolves top scorer Anthony Edwards walked off the court and to the locker room after coach Chris Finch benched his starters during the blowout loss in Atlanta. That moment, combined with the team’s lackadaisical effort, prompted questions about the team’s true identity.
The last three games offer evidence that the Timberwolves still have plenty to offer as they look to climb the Western Conference standings.
“The game in Atlanta was just a wake-up call for all of us,” Timberwolves centre Rudy Gobert said.
“It put it on ourselves to say, ‘Do we really want to be that team? Or do we want to be the team that we said we’re going to be, which is a championship team?’
“I think the answer is pretty obvious.”
Minnesota will face a Cavaliers squad that are coming off a 120-116 win on the road against the Indiana Pacers. It was the fourth win in the past five games for Cleveland.
Darius Garland will try to stay hot after scoring 29 points on 14-for-23 shooting in Cleveland’s most recent win. Garland is averaging 17.5 points and 6.9 assists in 22 games.
Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson praised Garland for his recent efforts. Garland missed the start of the season due to injury and is looking to return to the form that he showed last season, when he earned his second career All-Star selection.
“That was like ‘Takeover DG’ from last year,” Atkinson said of Garland’s most recent performance. “He really hit some big, big shots – some tough shots.”
Sam Merrill also could play a decisive role for Cleveland. He made six of 10 attempts from beyond the arc in the Cavaliers’ most recent game.
“There was one point I said, ‘Just get Sam the ball,’” Atkinson said. “Run off-ball (offence) or pick-and-roll with him... We needed that extra push from someone creativity-wise, and Sam gave it to us.”
Edwards leads the Timberwolves with 29.3 points per game on 50.4 per cent shooting from the field. Julius Randle is averaging 22.1 points, and Jaden McDaniels ranks third with 14.5 points.
McDaniels is coming off a 19-point performance in the win over Miami.
“Coming out of the holiday period, the priority was to get Jaden back into the mix offensively, whether it be play calls or just kind of finding him in the flow a little bit more,” Finch said. “He’s really responding.”
Meanwhile, in news off the court, the Atlanta Hawks are trading four-time All-Star point guard Trae Young to the Washington Wizards, multiple outlets reported Wednesday night.
The return package from Washington reportedly includes veteran guard C.J. McCollum and forward Corey Kispert.
Young, 27, has spent his entire career in Atlanta since he was acquired via from Dallas immediately after the Mavericks selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
He led the Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2020-21 season, but they followed with first-round exits the following two seasons and have been eliminated in the play-in the last two seasons.
Young, the franchise’s all-time leader in assists (4,837) and three-pointers made (1,295), has averaged 25.2 points, 9.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and one steal per contest over 493 games (all starts) with the Hawks.
However, he has played just 10 of the team’s 39 games this season, missing an extended stretch with a sprained medial collateral ligament and sitting out currently due to a right quad contusion.
ESPN said Young had been keen to join the Wizards, where he will be reunited with Washington executive Travis Schlenk, who drafted him in 2018.
Washington, who are one place off the bottom of the Eastern Conference with a 10-26 record, view Young as the centerpiece of their rebuilding project.
In on-court action on Jan 7, the New York Knicks ended their four-game losing streak with a 123-111 win over the struggling Los Angeles Clippers.
Jalen Brunson scored 26 points while Karl-Anthony Towns added 20 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.
“For the most part, we played a little desperate tonight,” Brunson said.
“We needed a win. The way we competed, the way we played, even if we were down in the first half, was Knicks basketball. “We just kept playing that way and found a way to win.”
In Oklahoma City, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander rescued the Thunder with a game-tying buzzer-beater before finishing with 46 points in a 129-125 overtime victory against the Utah Jazz.
“It’s not always going to be pretty, but we’ve got to play a lot better... we’d rather learn lessons in a win than in a loss,” he said after helping the NBA champions avoid a third straight loss. REUTERS, AFP