Martin leads unbeaten Wolves into Cleveland

(SportsNetwork.com) - The addition of Kevin Martin has paid off tremendously through three games for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Martin and the Timberwolves look to start 4-0 when they invade Cleveland Monday to battle the Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. The T'Wolves secured their veteran guard via a sign-and-trade deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Martin is averaging 20.7 points per game.

In Sunday's 109-100 victory against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Martin scored 30 points and made all five of his 3-pointers, which was one short of the team mark for 3-pointers without a miss. Chuck Person made all six of his 3-pointers back on Feb. 10, 1993.

Kevin Love, the star of the Minnesota show, poured in 34 points and 15 rebounds. Nikola Pekovic finished with 11 points and 12 boards. The Wolves had a lopsided 40-19 lead after 12 minutes, then made it 76-53 on a Brewer basket with 7:38 to go.

New York trimmed it to 100-98 on 3-pointers by Carmelo Anthony and Iman Shumpert, but Martin and Love propelled the Wolves to victory.

The Timberwolves are 3-0 for only the second time in franchise history and went 6-0 to start the 2001-02 campaign.

"It's only three games. We're happy where we're at. But we know we still have to take a couple more steps to be that team that we know we can be once April comes," Martin said.

Meanwhile, Cleveland started off the new season with a bang by upending the revamped Brooklyn Nets, but have since lost consecutive games to the Charlotte Bobcats and Indiana Pacers.

The Cavs dropped an 89-74 decision to the unbeaten Pacers on Saturday, as Dion Waiters scored a team-best 17 points, Kyrie Irving posted 15 and Anderson Varejao ended with 14 points. The Cavs shot just 34.9 percent from the field and were a dreadful 3-of-15 from 3-point territory.

Cleveland pulled within 62-55 at one point and the Pacers responded with a 17-6 run for a 79-61 cushion.

Cavs head coach Mike Brown was still satisfied with the effort.

"As crazy as this sounds, I thought tonight was our best offensive night, from the standpoint that the ball moved and bodies moved," Brown said.

Cleveland is back home, where it topped the Nets on opening night, and lost both meetings with Minnesota last season. The Timberwolves have won four of the past five in this series.

These two teams have split the previous 10 games at the Q.