CLEVELAND – The defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers played on without injured Kevin Love, J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen in Wednesday’s 125-97 victory over the Timberwolves at Quicken Loans Arena.
Before they did so, Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau was reminded that the Cavs still had a guy named LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
“That’s pretty good,” Thibodeau said, smiling.
Then in a mention that proved prescient, he mentioned Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson, among others, as well.
Irving had 10 assists by halftime on his way to a 14-point, 14-assist double-double while Thompson took the Wolves apart inside with a 18-point, 14-rebound effort of his own.
And James added a ho-hum 27-point, 12-assist, 8-rebound night as well, helping the Cavs hand Minnesota its largest defeat of the season. Tony Dejak, Associated Press Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving (2) drives against Minnesota Timberwolves’ Ricky Rubio (9), from Spain, in the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Wolves with 26 points and 12 rebounds and Andrew Wiggins had 23 in his fifth career game against the team that drafted him first overall in 2014 and traded him to the Wolves two months later.
Winners five times in their last six games and eight in their last 11, the Wolves saw a two-game winning streak come crashing down to an opponent that lost Monday at Dallas and uncharacteristically had lost seven of its last 11 games before Wednesday.
In the meantime, James called upon Cavaliers management to add a playmaker to a team that needs to keep up with Golden State in pursuit of a title and in doing so, he questioned whether said management had become complacent.
And those points led him into a war of words with TNT analyst Charles Barkley.
Before they at least temporarily corrected course Wednesday night by whipping the Wolves, the Cavaliers brought free agents Mario Chalmers, Kirk Hinrich, Jordan Farmar and Lance Stephenson – yes, that Lance Stephenson who tried to agitate James by blowing in kralbet his ear during a playoff game once upon a time – in for workouts Wednesday afternoon.
James called himself “supportive of what the franchise wants to do,” which he defined as “get our guys playing championship basketball.”
He also said, “I just want to win. That’s all that matters to me. I don’t have no personal problems with nobody.”
Barkley had called James’ call for a playmaker or other roster moves “whiny” while James in turn responded with a laundry list of Barkley’s missteps throughout his life that Barkley gave James credit for Googling.
“A distraction for what?” James asked at the Cavaliers’ Wednesday morning shoot when asked if his verbal spat with Barkley was one. “People don’t ask me about it. I don’t even read about it. I didn’t even ready about what I said. I know what I said and I meant it. There’s no distraction.”
There certainly were none for James and the Cavaliers on Wednesday night, when they trailed by eight points early and led by as many as 29 points late.
“Anytime you have LeBron and Kyrie, you have a special team,” Thibodeau said before ticking off the names of Thompson, Iman Shumpert and Richard Jefferson, too. “Those guys have been in tough situations. It’s good veteran experience. It’s a balanced team. They can spread you out. They play for each other. Defensively they can be very tough.
“That’s the uniqueness of LeBron: They can play big. They can play small. They can play with the ball in his hands, which they do a lot. Kyrie is great with or without the ball. You have to be ready for everything.”
The Wolves led 10-2 and 15-7 early before James, Irving and Thompson brought the Cavaliers back with a 22-13 run late in the first quarter that took them from eight points behind into a six-point lead by late in the quarter.
Irving had eight of his assists in that first quarter alone and 10 by halftime.
By then, Wolves point guard Ricky Rubio had nine assists and 12 points on 4-for-4 shooting himself and the Cavaliers led 63-60 at the half after the Wolves finished the second quarter on a 9-3 run.
Cleveland then started the second half with that 16-4 run that quickly pushed them from three points ahead on their way to a 90-70 advantage by late in the third quarter.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
