Timberwolves young star Andrew Wiggins delivered yet another personal statement about the August 2014 trade that sent him from Cleveland to Minnesota before he ever played a NBA game, but even his 41-point performance Tuesday at Target Center wasn’t enough to beat the defending NBA championship Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers delivered a 116-108 victory in a Valentine’s Night game in which they were all out of love, All-Star Kevin Love that is.
All they needed was Kyrie Irving’s 25 points, double-doubles from both veterans Tristan Thompson and Channing Fyre and a 23-point, 14-assist, 8-rebound game that approached a triple-double for superstar LeBron James.
Leading by nine points early in the game and trailing by as many as 14 points, the Wolves pulled within a point midway through the fourth quarter. But they never overcame a Eastern Conference-leading Cavs team that now has won six of its last seven games.
Wiggins offered yet another inspired performance — those 41 points on 16-for-28 shooting – and Karl-Anthony Towns scored 26 points and had eight rebounds while point guard Ricky Rubio’s 16 assists were one shy of his personal and Wolves’ record for most assists in a game.
The Cavaliers played on without starters Love and J.R. Smith, two players they have aimed at returning just in time to get into shape and rhythm for the playoffs.
Love underwent surgery in New York City Tuesday morning to have a “loose body” removed from his knee and is expected to miss the next six weeks while Smith hasn’t played since before Christmas because of a complex fracture of his thumb that required surgery.
While Love recovered, the other principle in that August 2014 trade scored 37 of his points through three quarters – including 19 in the third quarter alone — on a night when the Wolves led by nine points early and then trailed by as many as 14 points.
Wiggins entered the game having averaged 27.6 points on 56-percent shooting in his first five career games against the team that drafted him first overall in 2014 and traded him away before he ever played a game, unless, that is, you count Las Vegas summer-league action.
He admitted before the two teams played in Cleveland two weeks ago that it just simply isn’t another game when he faces the team that traded him.
“It’s a game, I play like it’s every other game, but I feel like it’s more,” he said. “It gets me going a little more.”
And why exactly?
“Just the fact that things happened, I guess,” he said. “I think it fires every player when they face their former team. They want to do good.”
Former Wolves No. 2 overall pick Derrick Williams signed a 10-day contract with the Cavaliers last week after he was waived by Miami and played a significant role off Cleveland bench. Included was an alley-oop dunk he converted from James that pushed the Wolves back after they had gotten within 105-104 midway through the fourth quarter.
He also provided a layup that shoved the Wolves back yet again and gave the Cavs a 114-106 lead with 1:39 left.
Meanwhile, Wolves recently signed guard Lance Stephenson left the game after he played just three minutes. He stepped awkwardly and fell hard after twisting his ankle, was helped to the locker room early in the second quarter and did not play again because of what the team called a sprained ankle.
The Wolves led 17-9 before the game was six minutes old, but the Cavaliers simply scored the next eight points to tie the game and briefly led by two points before the Wolves regained a 30-26 by first quarter’s end.
The Cavaliers used a 14-7 run early in the second quarter to build a five-point lead that became nine points with 3:37 left before halftime and still was eight points (69-61) at intermission.
Trailing by as many as 14 points midway through the third, the Wolves finished the third quarter on a 17-6 run powered by Wiggins that tied the score at 93 after three quarters.
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