Neither Karl-Anthony Towns nor Andrew Wiggins were available, and without them the Wolves lacked some scoring punch.
All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns remains injured and fellow max-salary teammate Andrew Wiggins was too ill to report for work on Saturday. So the Timberwolves played on without either, all the way to a 94-88 loss to Cleveland that was the 12th in their past 13 games.
The Wolves scored the game’s first basket, but didn’t lead again until a fourth-quarter comeback when point guard Shabazz Napier’s floater gave them a 78-77 lead with 6:40 left.
It didn’t last, not on a night when nine Wolves players had at least one steal each and Cleveland committed 29 turnovers — tied for a NBA high this season — but won anyway.