Cavaliers Cold in Minnesota, lose 109-104

 The Cleveland Cavaliers played one excellent half of basketball and one lazy half and guess which one won the day?

Lazy as the Minnesota Timberwolves, who had won two of their most recent sixteen games defeated Cleveland 109-104 in Minneapolis.

Andre Drummond scored 25 points and grabbed 22 rebounds with Darius Garland adding 27 points.

The sluggish Cavaliers will receive a rematch with the Timberwolves tonight in Cleveland.

Swashbucklings

1) Andre Drummond was very effective in the first half as the Cavaliers dumped the ball down on the block to Drummond with Minnesota struggling to guard him without Karl-Anthony Towns or backup Naz Reid active.

2) But in the second half, Drummond didn't seem like he could buy a shot and Cleveland seemed out of sync on offense with occasions that saw players arguing with each other about being in the wrong place with the ball not moving where the play was called.

3) The Cavaliers committed a major strategic blunder late in the game with Minnesota leading by six and under thirty seconds remaining, the Cavaliers allowed the Timberwolves to run the time down before missing their shot leaving less than ten seconds remaining in the game.

You have to foul in that situation and hope to prolong the game- Cleveland didn't.

4) Cleveland also didn't play with their normal defensive intensity in the second half.

DeAngelo Russell nailed a wide-open three late in the game with Larry Nance Jr and Cedi Osman near Russell and neither making a move toward Russell, thinking the other man had Russell guarded.

I look for a better defensive effort tonight against the same Timberwolves team.

5) Minnesota hit 16 of 40 from three-point range with Cleveland connecting on only four of sixteen from beyond the arc.

The difference in attempts can be partially explained by the tactics involved with getting the ball to Andre Drummond, but allowing forty percent effectiveness cannot be passed around to anything other than bad defense.

6) Isaac Okoro scored a career-high 13 points on six for ten shooting.

Okoro has begun to take the ball into the lane more and that should help the shooting percentage along with developing another wrinkle to his offensive game.