Cavaliers 113, Wolves 104: Naz Reid’s Career Night Not Enough to Foster a Win

Naz Reid’s career-high 34 points were not enough to carry the Timberwolves to victory in Cleveland, where the Cavs got 34 points from Darius Garland and a career-high 33 points from Jarrett Allen.

After a thrilling 113-111 victory over the Indiana Pacers last night, in which Anthony Edwards had 44 points and a breathtaking game-sealing block, the Minnesota Timberwolves were right back in action one night later against Darius Garland and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Both teams come into this matchup a bit banged up with the Cavs missing three starters, including their star guard Donovan Mitchell as well as their young forward Evan Mobley and offseason acquisition Max Strus.

For the Wolves, this was their second game without their four-time All-Star forward Karl-Anthony Towns since the announcement of his torn left meniscus, which is set to sideline him for at least a month. Also out for Minnesota was Monté Morris, who injured his left hamstring in Thursday night’s win, and Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch, who was ill. Micah Nori took over the head coaching duties.

After a quick start from the Timberwolves that would see them take an early seven-point lead, Minnesota would give up a 16-2 run midway through the first. After made shots in the paint from Naz Reid and newest Wolf T.J Warren, the Wolves would only be down 25-23 at the first quarter break.

Minnesota would come out strong in the second quarter, going up by eight points midway through the frame. Without Towns, Naz Reid has seen his role grow within the Timberwolves offense and so far on this road trip, he has done well stepping up into that role.

The Cavaliers would again make a run of their own, taking a 54-50 lead into halftime. Darius Garland led all scorers with 17 points with Ant and Naz leading the Wolves in scoring with 13 points each.

Ant would open up the second half with a highlight dunk and flex over Jarrett Allen. Scott Foster would follow that up with a very Scott Foster moment of giving Edwards an unnecessary technical foul. Foster stepped into a spotlight he didn’t want to leave for the rest of the game.

In the third, the Wolves would struggle to defend without fouling, leading to 18 free throws in the quarter for Cleveland. Despite this, the Timberwolves were able to win the third quarter by five points as a result of holding the Cavs to just 4/17 (23.5%) from the floor and 2/10 in the paint, securing themselves a slim 80-79 going into the fourth.

The game would come down to the wire with Naz Reid coming up huge down the stretch. After curiously not playing for the majority of the fourth quarter, Nori subbed Reid back into the game during his “use it or lose it” timeout just before the 3:00 mark. With the Wolves desperately needing bucket down by four, Naz would hit a 3 from the corner, bringing the Wolves within 1.

Naz would then give the Wolves the lead a minute later.

Following a Wolves stop on defense, the Scott Foster show would come back as an out-of-position Foster would call a loose ball foul on Rudy Gobert, his sixth, after he appeared to get an offensive rebound. He had zero view of the play (as a replay camera angle confirmed in the moments after), yet felt confident enough to make the biggest call of the night.

The officiating crew would compound that by giving Rudy a technical for a money gesture, allowing the Cavaliers the tie the game at 97 apiece with 27.8 seconds to play. After making the free throw, Garland wanted to get his matchup in isolation, and called for a screen to get a switch onto Reid, who made him pay.

Edwards missed a shot at the buzzer, so the score would hold there at 97-97 heading into overtime.

In overtime, the officiating would continue to be a thorn in the Wolves side as many more calls went in favor of the Cavaliers. A game that was so much fun down the stretch of the fourth quarter had the life taken out of it by this group of officials.

Jarrett Allen finished the game with 21 free throws, a staggering amount for someone who only averages 3.9 per game this season, en route to scoring a career-high 33 points. Only Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid have attempted more free throws in a game this season than Allen did tonight.

Ultimately, there was just too much to overcome in overtime as the Timberwolves would fall to the Cavaliers 113-104.

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Key Takeaways

Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images

Naz Reid

With Karl-Anthony Towns out for the foreseeable future, the Timberwolves will need to find a way to replace KAT’s scoring and 3-point shooting. Tonight, they got that from their big man off the bench Naz Reid.

Naz finished the game with a career-high 34 points on 10-18 shooting from the field and 7-11 shooting from beyond the arc. He was also fantastic on defense, including the block at the end that, if not for the technical called on Gobert, could have been the game-sealing play.

On a night where many of his teammates struggled greatly to make shots, Naz stepped up and nearly carried the Wolves to victory on the second night of a back-to-back in Cleveland.

If the Wolves outlast the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets to stay atop the Western Conference without KAT, they will likely need more performances like this from Reid. They likely won’t need 34 points every night, but without Towns’ scoring and shooting, Reid is the most obvious replacement of that production.

Photo by Lauren Leigh Bacho/NBAE via Getty Images

3-Point Shooting

Aside from Reid, the Wolves struggled mightily from beyond the arc in this game. Other than Reid, the Wolves shot 1-19. One of nineteen.

Anthony Edwards was 0-7, Mike Conley was 0-5, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker was 0-3. That is three of the Timberwolves’ better 3-point shooters combining to go 0-15 from deep. It is especially tough when the Wolves likely win the game if any one of those attempts fall.

With the Wolves coming off a hard-fought, very short-handed victory the night before in Indiana, it should come as no surprise that some shots were coming up short in the game, but with the Wolves missing their best 3-point shooter in KAT, 3-point shooting will be a statistic to monitor the remainder of the season.

With a travel day tomorrow, and the next two games in Los Angeles, the Wolves will hope that a little rest will more shots fall in their upcoming games.

Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

Crazy Schedule

This game in Cleveland wraps up a unique part of the schedule for the Wolves. Tonight was their fourth back-to-back in the nine games since the All-Star break. That means only one of those nine games had a rest day both before and after the game.

That is a crazy section of the schedule with very few rest games to catch their breath in between. Tonight was also the Timberwolves second overtime game during that stretch, putting even more stress on everyone’s bodies.

The schedule does lighten up a bit following tonight’s game as the Wolves will have the rest advantage in four of their remaining games while only having the rest disadvantage twice.

Even this current road trip provides some relief in terms of travel. The Wolves only need to travel twice for the remaining four games of this road trip with the next two games in Los Angeles, against the Lakers and Clippers, before they face the Utah Jazz twice at Delta Center.

The Wolves only have three back-to-backs remaining on the schedule with the next one coming in a huge matchup against the Denver Nuggets in two weeks back home at Target Center. Two of the Wolves’ three meetings with the Nuggets will come on the second night of a back-to-back.

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Up Next

The Wolves continue on their six-game road trip as they head west for a pair of games in Los Angeles. The first of which comes on Sunday against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

It will be the Wolves second straight game airing on ESPN. Tip-off will be at 8:30 PM CT at Crypto.com Arena.

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Highlights