Monday, November 26, 2018

Timberwolves now 6-2 without Mr. What's-His-Name

The Minnesota Timberwolves won on the road for the 2nd time this year--beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 102-95 in Cleveland--to run their record to 6-2 since the trade that sent what's-his-name to Philadelphia in return for 2 actual ballplayers, Robert Covington and Dario Saric. Covington led all scorers in the game with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting and added 7 boards, 2 steals and 2 blocks. He was +8. Saric came off the bench to scored 9 points on 4-of-10 shooting with 6 boards. He was +15.

It was essentially the T-Wolves bench that stole this game from the Cavs. Saric was +15. Thus Jones was +12, though he scored only 3 points himself. Gorge Dieng was +14 though he scored just 2 points. Derrick Rose scored 12 points, 10 of them in the 4th quarter, and added 4 assists. He was +5. Covington rounds out the 5 most efficient T-Wolves on the night.

Still, Karl Towns scored 21 with 10 boards, but he was -7 and his opposite number for the Cavs, Tristan Thompson, scored 16 with 11 boards and 3 assists on half as many shots and was +9.

Still it was a good effort. Forget that the Cavs are 4-14. The operative number was the Wolves 1-8 road record. They shot just well enough to win, making 40-of-86 shots versus the Cavs' 36-of-86. That was the difference in a game that was maybe a little closer than the 102-95 score suggests. The Wolves led 29-26, 54-47 and 75-71 at the quarter breaks, and just 88-84 at the 5 minute mark, 91-86 at the 2 minute mark, and 99-95 with 14 ticks left on the clock.

Meanwhile, the Gopher men couldn't generate any offense, especially in the 2nd half--Dupree McBrayer failed to score on the night--and lost to a mediocre Boston College team 68-56 on the road.

Player of the Day--Robert Covington
Team of the Day--Minnesota Timberwolves
Coach of the Day--Tom Thibodeau

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