Timberwolves showing marked defensive improvement

On pace for a 50-win season, having won four straight games at home, on the heels of their fifth wire-to-wire victory of the season, the Timberwolves will play host to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Target Center on Monday night.

It will be another test to see if Minnesota can continue its recent trend:

Defense.

How many times have you heard Jimmy Butler say it? You can't spend your season just trying to outscore your opponent. Well, with veterans Butler and Taj Gibson leading the way, with Karl-Anthony Towns in particular suddenly taking big steps, the Wolves are starting to mix it up on the defensive end.

Against a Cavaliers team getting healthy with the return of Isaiah Thomas — Cleveland scored a season-high 131 points Saturday in a victory at Orlando — the Wolves counter with a defense that has held five consecutive opponents under 100 points for the first time since November 2012.

An issue since Tom Thibodeau took over as coach for the start of the 2016-17 season, the Wolves are making definite, defensive strides.

"It's not like, all of a sudden, you have it,'' Thibodeau said. "You have to keep working at it. And you have to concentrate on the improvement. … I like the way we're starting to grow defensively."

Sortable NBA team statistics

The Wolves went 3-2 in that five-game stretch, with road losses to Brooklyn and Boston. Against the Celtics — the top team in the Eastern Conference — the Wolves had an uncharacteristically bad game on offense, shooting 36.8 percent and scoring 84 points, both season lows.

But because the Wolves played strong defense they were still in the game late.

To Thibodeau, much of the team's improvement on defense can be traced to the strides Towns is making. Both before and after Saturday's lopsided victory over New Orleans, Thibodeau praised Towns' recent play on both ends of the court. On offense, with the way he's been moving the ball to the open man. And on defense.

"Defensively, he's really starting to see things," Thibodeau said. "He's becoming more of a multiple-effort guy. The rebounding [Towns has 39 in his past two games], that's as good as it gets. Part of it is experience. He has a lot of pride, and he works at it. And now he's been around for a while, I think that's big."

"We're doing a much better job of doing more than one thing," Thibodeau said.

When it comes to defense, Thibodeau preaches ball containment on the pick-and-roll, protecting the rim and the paint, then getting out and contesting three-point shots. Earlier in the season the Wolves often fell short.