Jarrett Allen, Kevin Love and Darius Garland each registered a double-double, and the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers cruised to a 123-106 win over the host Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night in Minneapolis.
Allen finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds, Love notched 18 points and 13 rebounds and Garland had 12 points with 12 assists for Cleveland, which has won back-to-back games. Lauri Markkanen added 19 points on 7-for-8 shooting and Isaac Okoro contributed 16 on 7-for-10 shooting.
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves with 21 points to go along with seven rebounds. Malik Beasley scored 15 points off the bench and Anthony Edwards had 13 for Minnesota, which has lost five games in a row.
Seven Cavaliers players scored in double figures, including all five starters.
Cleveland shot 54.1 percent (46 of 85) overall and 39.4 percent (13 of 33) from 3-point range. By comparison, Minnesota shot 39.1 percent (36 of 92) overall and 28.2 percent (11 of 39) from deep.
The Cavaliers entered the fourth quarter with a 92-71 lead. Love scored 10 points for Cleveland in the third quarter by making seven free throws and a 3-pointer.
Minnesota managed a few small runs on offense but trailed by double digits for most of the game. During the third quarter, the Timberwolves had a 7-0 run thanks to a 3-pointer by Taurean Prince, two free throws by Patrick Beverley and a jump shot by Prince, but all that did was trim the deficit from 25 points to 18.
Cleveland sprinted to a 65-44 lead at the half.
The Cavaliers went on a 14-0 run to seize a 20-4 lead in the first five minutes, prompting boo birds to take out their frustrations against the hometown Timberwolves. Cleveland’s run included a trio of alley-oop dunks — two by Allen and one by Evan Mobley.
Beasley made a jump shot to finally end the run. The basket snapped a scoring drought of 3:39 for Minnesota.
Cleveland led by 14 points at the end of the first quarter and pushed the lead to 21 at the break.
Timberwolves guard D’Angelo Russell missed his third game in a row because of an ankle injury.
–Field Level Media