{"id":405308,"date":"2026-01-11T02:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/405308\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T02:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:11:08","slug":"cavs-put-together-complete-performance-in-146-134-win-over-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/405308\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs put together complete performance in 146-134 win over Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Cleveland\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fearthesword.com\/cavs-analysis\/42725\/winners-and-losers-cavs-at-wolves-starting-lineup-tanks-an-otherwise-strong-game\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">starting five on Thursday did them in<\/a>. Their core four of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen were joined by guard Craig Porter Jr. in the starting lineup. Minnesota won the nine and a half minutes the starters were on the floor by 19 points in Thursday\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Head coach Kenny Atkinson was asked about that starting lineup before Saturday\u2019s game. He didn\u2019t blame Craig Porter Jr. for that group\u2019s shortcomings, but it was clear he wasn\u2019t going to make that mistake again as he inserted Sam Merril into the starting lineup in Porter\u2019s place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Merrill rewarded his coach\u2019s trust by pouring in 20 points on 5-6 shooting from beyond the arc. His off-ball movement and spacing were exactly what the starting lineup needed to function at its best. Instead of losing those minutes by nine, the starters won their minutes by eight on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Each of the starters made a significant contribution to the win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Donovan Mitchell led the way with a game-high 28 points on 9-21 shooting. Darius Garland elevated the hybrid bench lineups while providing 22 points on 10-13 shooting with six assists. Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen dominated the paint. Mobley added 24 points and four rebounds. Allen supplied 16 points and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jaylon Tyson had another impressive outing. He had 23 of the bench\u2019s 36 points while going 4-4 from three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">This was a complete offensive performance from the Cavs. The ball was moving around as well as it has all season. This led to 36 of the team\u2019s 55 field goals coming off assists. It also helped that the Cavaliers shot the ball well as they went 15-30 (50%) from three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Timberwolves also benefited from a hot shooting night. They went 16-32 (50%) from three, but their inability to take care of the ball with 15 turnovers led to them not getting the most out of their impressive three-point shooting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 25 points on 10-24 shooting. Julius Randle had 22 points on 9-16 shooting with four rebounds and four assists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Timberwolves are one of the best teams in the league, but the Cavs showed that they could compete with them during this two-game series. That\u2019s incredibly encouraging for a team that has struggled to play up to its skill level at times this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Cavs will be back in action on Monday when they host the <a href=\"http:\/\/slcdunk.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Utah Jazz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland\u2019s starting five on Thursday did them in. Their core four of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,214904,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-405308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cavs-scores","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}