Anthony Edwards will lead the Timberwolves against Darius Garland and the Cavs in a matchup of two two teams depleted by injuries to stars and role players alike.
After a brutal road/home back-to-back and falling just short of an improbable victory against the defending champs, Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves looks to right the ship in a Friday night matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The two days of rest between Tuesday’s grueling matchup and Friday’s game are a warm welcome to the Wolves. They had a difficult end to a six-game road trip, as after the Wolves beat the Utah Jazz on Monday night they had to travel back to Minnesota (and lose an hour of sleep) ahead of a heavyweight bout against one of the best and hottest teams in the NBA, the Denver Nuggets.
The Wolves played Tuesday’s game without all three of their big men in Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid. Towns will obviously be inactive as he recovers from meniscus surgery, while Reid and Gobert’s status is up in the air for Friday’s game. Reid was ruled out in the afternoon leading up to the previous game, while Gobert was a game-time decision.
Minnesota sorely missed their trio of bigs on Tuesday, and matching up against Jarrett Allen Friday will be no cakewalk either if they are again lacking in the size department.
In other news, there will be a Naz Reid Beach Towel giveaway for the first 15,000 fans at Target Center, so if the brilliant hoops on the court isn’t enough to lure you downtown, maybe this extra piece of limited edition merchandise will draw you to First Avenue.
Game Info
- Who: Minnesota Timberwolves (47-22) vs Cleveland Cavaliers (43-26)
- When: Friday, March 22 at 7:00 PM CT
- Where: Target Center — Minneapolis, MN
- TV: Bally Sports North (Michael Grady, Jim Petersen and Lea B. Olsen), NBA TV
- Radio: Wolves App, iHeart Radio, KFAN 100.3 FM
- Line: Wolves -7 | Total: 207 (courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)
Injury Report
Updated as of Friday, March 22 at 5:20 PM CT
Minnesota
AVAILABLE:
- Anthony Edwards (left middle finger dislocation/sprain)
- Naz Reid (head injury)
GAME-TIME DECISION:
- Rudy Gobert (left rib sprain)
OUT:
- Jaylen Clark (right achilles tendon rupture rehab)
Cleveland
OUT:
- Ty Jerome (right ankle surgery)
- Donovan Mitchell (nasal fracture surgery)
- Evan Mobley (left ankle sprain)
- Isaiah Mobley (two-way contract)
- Pete Nance (two-way contract)
- Max Strus (right knee sprain)
- Dean Wade (right knee sprain)
What to Watch For
Containing Jarrett Allen
A brutal overtime loss to Cleveland is still fresh in everyone’s minds as it took place just two weeks ago. The Wolves had just had a draining win in Indiana the night before and ran out of gas as this game went to overtime in an eventual Minnesota loss. One of the most notable stories of this game was Rudy Gobert getting a technical foul (and subsequently catching a $100,000 fine) for making the money gesture after getting his sixth foul with less than a minute to go in regulation – which was meant to signal the referees were getting paid to rig the game. His frustration boiled over as he looked at the scoreboard to find that Allen was 15/21 from the free throw line – his career high in makes and attempts — just one less free throw than Minnesota shot as a team.
Jarrett Allen was on a MISSION during Friday night’s big win over the Minnesota Timberwolves
Check out the recap on last night’s win HERE: https://t.co/HAK2oQb40L#LetEmKnow #WatchFreeOn43 pic.twitter.com/0kHXHsuYcx
— Cleveland 19 News (@cleveland19news) March 9, 2024
No matter where you fall on this referee spectrum, Allen was dominant on the glass in this game in the non-Gobert minutes. He finished with 18 rebounds and punished the time when Rudy was not on the floor. While Darius Garland finished with one more point than Allen’s career-high 33 and was phenomenal in his own right, Allen was the one causing havoc outside of just scoring by controlling the glass.
With Gobert still nursing his rib injury, and his status still in doubt for Friday’s game, someone else is going to have to set up and attempt to mitigate Jarrett Allen’s impact on the boards if Gobert isn’t 100% or doesn’t suit up. Kyle Anderson (for all intents and purposes) started at the 5 last game against Denver with Luka Garza functioning as the backup. Minnesota was out-rebounded by 12 on Tuesday mostly because of their lack of size around the basket. Expect Edwards and Jaden McDaniels to be active on the glass, as well.
If Naz and Rudy do not play, Anderson and Garza will have to stay locked in until Minnesota secures defensive rebounds to stop as many second chance opportunities as possible. To me, Garza had his most impressive NBA performance with the Timberwolves and seemed to be able to get physical with Nikola Jokić to impact the two-time MVP as much as a player like Garza could. He will have to take that with him to the Cavs matchup in order to bother Allen.
Jaden McDaniels on the Upswing?
When Towns went out with injury, McDaniels was thought to be one of the prime benefactors on the offensive end. The thought around Jaden has always been with more of an offensive role that he could step into that and flourish to become the two-way player that we all envisioned him to be. That was not the case for the first six games after the KAT injury. During that road trip, he shot 22/65 from the field (34%) and 3/21 from beyond the arc (14%). Not only that, but it seemed that he was forcing subpar looks (especially on 2-point shots) to try and shoot himself out of the slump.
JADEN MCDANIELS 3. LEAD CUT TO 1.
4.2 seconds left…
Nuggets-Timberwolves | Live on NBA TV
https://t.co/i20qPDL3uT pic.twitter.com/EH1TVBRz9F— NBA (@NBA) March 20, 2024
The switch flipped for Jaden on Tuesday against the Nuggets. He scored 26 points and grabbed six rebounds, shooting 9/13 from the field, including four 3-pointers. This is the Jaden McDaniels that the Timberwolves need to fill in for Towns and for all playoff series that they find themselves in without the four-time All-Star. McDaniels let the game come to him, found his shots within the rhythm of the offense, attacked the rim relentlessly and made the most of his catch-and-shoot opportunities.
Sometimes, as a basketball player, you just need to see one shot go in. The lanky small forward got just that with a garbage time buzzer beater against the Jazz on Monday. Sorry, but thanks Utah!
Still can’t believe a garbage time borderline unsportsmanlike 3 from Jaden might’ve sparked his offense for the rest of the season
— Benny Hughes (@Benny__Hughes) March 20, 2024
Ant’s Place in the MVP Conversation
As the regular season winds to a close awards are becoming more and more of a topic of conversation amongst the media and fans. While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić are the two frontrunners and it will most likely come down to those two, it is not out of the question to suggest that Anthony Edwards will be shooting up voting boards if he continues the level of play that he is at.
Since the Towns injury, Ant is averaging 31.1 points, 5.4 assists and 7.3 rebounds per game. Those are absurd statistics that only Luka Dončić has averaged in this season. While Denver and OKC are surging post-All-Star break and the Wolves trying to tread water with injuries for this recent stretch, if the Timberwolves are able to climb back to the No. 1 seed, Edwards should turn some heads when it comes to the Most Valuable Player conversation. He is currently just outside the top according to NBA.com’s KIA MVP Ladder.