In a game between two of the NBA's best teams, the Minnesota Timberwolves fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime despite 47 points from Anthony Edwards.

Despite Edwards's heroics, there were plenty of reasons the Wolves should not have won this game. Many appear as clear red flags in the box score: turnovers, missed free throws and three-point attempts stand out the most.

But it's not quite that cut and dry. The Wolves did a handful of things well in terms of their process, even if the execution was not where it needed to be in order to come away with a win.

Positive: Timberwolves' Offense On A Cold 3-Point Shooting Night

The Timberwolves hoisted up 50 three-point attempts on opening night in Orlando, knocking down 42% of them. On Monday in Cleveland, the Wolves got up 40 of them in the overtime loss, making just 32%.

Yet for all the hand-wringing about the Wolves potentially being too reliant on three-point shooting, the Wolves still ended up scoring plenty of points in Cleveland even while shooting and making less threes.

In the first half, the Wolves offense was driven by paint touches, and they got to those shots in a variety of ways. From transition to half-court sets to taking advantage of offensive rebounds, the Wolves largely lived in the paint early. The issue was with Minnesota's conversion rate on those paint attempts, and the problem got worse as the game went on.

For the full game, Minnesota was 27-of-48 (56.3%) in the paint. It's not a great mark, and it's illustrative of both how often the Wolves were around the rim (good) and how many misses they had when they were in close (bad). Gobert (0-7 in the paint) was the leading culprit, but he was not the only one to struggle at the rim in this one.

Rudy Gobert last night

0/9 FG
0/2 3PT pic.twitter.com/liK2NuAYN4

— Underdog (@Underdog) October 27, 2026

For the season, the Wolves lead the league in Plays/Miss per Cleaning the Glass, meaning that the Wolves generate the most putback plays per 100 field goals. However, Minnesota is 29th in Points per Putback Plays. In other words, the opportunities have been there, but the conversion is not.

The Wolves missed their first five paint attempts in the third quarter and shot just 3-for-8 in the paint during the frame. They ultimately lost the third quarter by a 36-26 margin, giving back their entire halftime lead.

Still, because the paint attempts came early and often and buoyed the offense early while the outside shooting was pedestrian, the overarching takeaway here is positive in nature.

More paint attempts are always better than less, and when the shots were falling early, the Wolves offense was humming despite the struggles from beyond the arc, as we saw in Orlando last week. On another night, the shots will fall and the result will look different.

Negative: Turnovers & Transition Defense

Other than missed free throws (the Wolves are now shooting 60.7% form the line this year, worst in the NBA), turnovers and spotty transition defense have been among the more worrisome trends over the first week.

The Wolves turned the ball over 18 times against the Cavs, leading to 19 points. The success rate was not ultra high for Cleveland, but the live-ball turnovers that led to fastbreaks are the ones where they capitalized the most.

For the game, the Cavaliers had 18 fastbreak points. Some came off of the aforementioned live-ball turnovers, but others came after made baskets by the Wolves, an inexcusable lapse by the defense.

THIS is the effort the Cavs need -- Meleek is EVERYWHERE.

He hustles back to recover on defense after steal attempt then grabs rebound and immediately gets it up floor... BUT doesn't stop there and continues to fill the lane and is rewarded. pic.twitter.com/yU8yQb6grA

— RealCavsFans.com (@realcavsfans) October 26, 2026

On the plus side, these are easy miscues to correct with a little more attention to detail and effort to get back after makes. On the other hand, it was also a frequent issue last year for this Wolves squad and is something that LaMelo Ball in particular has been a guilty party to in the past as well.

Will Chris Finch be able to get his team to improve on that front, or will this be a bugaboo for the team throughout the season? The Wolves have been great in the defensive halfcourt so far this season and have a chance to be one of the league's best defenses, so it would be disappointing to see the top-line impact be dragged down by something as simple as denying runouts that should be easily prevented.

In general, the Wolves have been awesome over the first four games of the season. If they had received the benefit of the doubt on a couple of calls late or perhaps if Edwards hits the open three-point attempt at the end of overtime in Cleveland, they would be 4-0.

Still, there are plenty of things that can be cleaned up, and making a few more of the shots that they're generating in the paint, reducing turnovers, and getting back in transition would all be great places to start.