NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves Preview, Odds, Prediction

The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves clash in Minneapolis tonight. The home team plays less than 24 hours after their previous battle against the Phoenix Suns. A win in this one boosted the shaky morale of the team from Minnesota, who want to make a push towards the play-in tournament. Meanwhile, the Cavs are on tour throughout the West, with this being their fifth consecutive road event.

Preview

Cleveland Cavaliers (-150) have subsequent wins and losses in the past five events. The road trip started with a loss in Denver, where Nuggets beat the Donovan Mitchell-less Cavs; then we saw a win in Phoenix, then a failure in Utah, and finally a big win over the Portland Trail Blazers in Oregon, 119-113. 

Lillard had 50 points, yet that didn’t help the hosts in their intention to beat the guests from Ohio. Cleveland was behind coming into the final period but managed to flip the result while outscoring the rivals 32-22. 

Three of the Cavs’ players had 20+ points, with Mitchell leading the way, dropping 26. He added five boards and five assists, stealing the possession twice. Jarrett Allen was back after his illness with a big double-double, 24 points, and 10 boards, with six assists on top of that. Darius Garland also posted a double-double with 20 buckets and 10 assists, doing his part of the job just fine.

Minnesota Timberwolves (+130) had four victories in a row before losing to the Detroit Pistons on the road, 135-118. However, the Wolves rebounded with a 121-116 triumph over the Phoenix Suns, who are still struggling with absences. 

Minnesota was up all the time, but in the end, they allowed the guests to cut down a massive deficit, as Phoenix scored 41 points in the ultimate 12 minutes, while T-Wolves dropped just 29. Luckily, the Suns didn’t have the juice to break the hosts and make a massive comeback, one of the biggest this year. 

Anthony Edwards scored 31 points, with six boards, continuing his solid stretch of performances in the recent two weeks. D’Angelo Russell had 17, and Taurean Prince had one fewer off the bench. Overall, the T-Wolves have shot well from the field, particularly for two points 37-for-62, which is a pretty high percentage. This was mainly because the guards easily penetrated the Suns’ backcourt, Edwards primarily.

Head to Head Games

The Timberwolves clashed with the Cavs in Ohio midway through November, winning that extremely interesting event 129-124. Russell scored 30 with 11 assists, KAT had 29 buckets in that one grabbing 13 boards, while Edwards didn’t had his night delivering only 10 points.

On the other side, Garland had 51 points, hitting 10 threes in 15 attempts, setting his career-high. Mitchell wasn’t in the protocol, as well as Allen. 

Prediction

The line for the totals is set at 224.5 points. Given that the T-Wolves went over in eight of the past 11 games and that nine of the recent 12 Cavs’ contests also ended with more points than offered, it sounds reasonable to bet on Over here as well. Also, their previous head-to-head clash saw more than 250 points, so we just have to pick Over and try it.

Pick: Over 224.5 points -110