# Cavaliers Rally From 15 Down to Beat Timberwolves 127-125 in Overtime Source: SportsBriefly (https://sportsbriefly.com) Canonical URL: https://sportsbriefly.com/en/basketball/cavaliers-rally-from-15-down-to-beat-timberwolves-127-125-in-overtime-2026-10-27 Language: en Published: 2026-10-27T15:09:18.139+00:00 Updated: 2026-10-27T15:09:18.207631+00:00 > Cleveland rallied from 15 points down to beat Minnesota 127-125 in overtime at Rocket Arena, handing the Timberwolves their first loss despite Anthony Edwards' 47 points. ## TL;DR - The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 127-125 in overtime at Rocket Arena, Cleveland, on Monday 26 October 2026, the result of the fixture previewed in the 2026-10-26 evening edition. - Cleveland trailed by 15 points before rallying; Donovan Mitchell hit the tie-breaking midrange jumper with 48 seconds left in overtime. - Anthony Edwards missed a wide-open three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left that could have tied the game; Peyton Watson's free throws made it 127-122 before Edwards' buzzer three-pointer. - Mitchell scored 26 points with seven assists; James Harden had 19 points and nine assists; Evan Mobley had 18 points and 10 rebounds; rookie Meleek Thomas scored 16 off the bench in his NBA debut. - Edwards finished with a season-high 47 points; Jaden McDaniels scored 14 points and Rudy Gobert collected 20 rebounds. - After the game Cleveland stood at 2-1 and Minnesota at 3-1, suffering its first loss of the season. ## Key points - The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 127-125 in overtime at Rocket Arena, Cleveland, on Monday 26 October 2026, the result of the fixture previewed in the 2026-10-26 evening edition. - Cleveland trailed by 15 points before rallying; Donovan Mitchell hit the tie-breaking midrange jumper with 48 seconds left in overtime. - Anthony Edwards missed a wide-open three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left that could have tied the game; Peyton Watson's free throws made it 127-122 before Edwards' buzzer three-pointer. - Mitchell scored 26 points with seven assists; James Harden had 19 points and nine assists; Evan Mobley had 18 points and 10 rebounds; rookie Meleek Thomas scored 16 off the bench in his NBA debut. - Edwards finished with a season-high 47 points; Jaden McDaniels scored 14 points and Rudy Gobert collected 20 rebounds. - After the game Cleveland stood at 2-1 and Minnesota at 3-1, suffering its first loss of the season. This is the result of the fixture previewed in the 2026-10-26 evening edition: the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 127-125 in overtime at Rocket Arena in Cleveland on Monday 26 October 2026, US time. It was a comeback, a survival act and a statement win all at once. Cleveland trailed by 15 points, rallied, survived a season-high 47 points from Anthony Edwards, and then won the game in the extra period on Donovan Mitchell's nerve and Peyton Watson's free throws. ## The finish in overtime The finish was as tense as the scoreline suggests. Mitchell hit the tie-breaking midrange jumper with 48 seconds left in overtime to put Cleveland ahead, and the game then turned on a single open look. Edwards, who had carried Minnesota all night, missed a wide-open three-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining, a shot that could have tied the game. Watson grabbed the rebound and made two free throws to stretch Cleveland's lead to 127-122, before Edwards connected on a three-pointer at the buzzer. That final shot made the margin two points, but it did not change the result: Cleveland had already done enough, and Edwards' buzzer-beater merely completed his extraordinary individual line. For a team that had trailed by 15, the composure in those final seconds, securing the rebound, making the free throws, closing the game out, was as important as any basket that preceded it. The road to overtime explains why the win will matter to Cleveland beyond a single night in October. Minnesota, previously unbeaten at 3-0, led for much of the game and built a 15-point advantage in the first half, with Edwards, cleared to play late after being listed as questionable with a right knee injury, making an electric start with 11 points in the first quarter. Cleveland rallied to pull level in the third quarter, then had to come from behind again after slipping to a seven-point deficit in the fourth. James Harden's driving floater with ten seconds remaining tied the game, and a blocked Edwards layup with four seconds left sent the game to overtime tied at 113-113. That sequence, the floater and the block, captures the two halves of Cleveland's night: an offence that found a way late, and a defence that made one decisive stop when the game was about to slip away. Mitchell finished with 26 points and seven assists, and his overtime jumper was the game's defining shot, but this was not a one-man win. Harden added 19 points and nine assists, steering Cleveland through the stretches when Mitchell was not scoring and providing the late floater that forced overtime. Evan Mobley contributed 18 points and 10 rebounds, a double-double built on work at both ends, while rookie Meleek Thomas scored 16 points off the bench in his NBA debut. Thomas's contribution deserves emphasis: a rookie, in his first NBA game, scoring 16 points off the bench in a comeback win against an unbeaten team, is the kind of night that changes how a coaching staff views a rotation. It gave Cleveland a fourth scoring threat on a night when it needed every one of them, and it gave the home crowd a new name to remember. ## A comeback built in two halves ![Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell in action against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Rocket Arena, 26 October 2026](https://dcwdppdscydjemfvownz.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/api/1793113751915-i9sg61-basketball-inside1-2026-10-27-evening.jpg) Edwards, for all that his team lost, produced the game's great individual performance. His 47 points were a season high, and the buzzer-beater that closed his night only underlined how close he came to stealing the game single-handed. He was not alone in Minnesota's effort, either. Jaden McDaniels scored 14 points, and Rudy Gobert collected 20 rebounds, dominating the glass even on a night when his scoring was limited. Yet Minnesota's supporting numbers also explain the defeat: Edwards scored 47, but the next-highest Timberwolves total was far behind him, and Cleveland's balance, four players in double figures led by Mitchell's 26, ultimately outlasted one star's brilliance. Gobert's 20 rebounds kept Minnesota in possessions and second chances, but rebounds alone cannot win a game in which the opposition makes the final plays, and in overtime Cleveland made them. The records after the game tell a simple early-season story. Cleveland improved to 2-1, a winning record banked on the back of a comeback that could easily have become a second defeat. Minnesota fell to 3-1, suffering its first loss of the season after three wins, and the manner of that first defeat matters: an unbeaten start ended not by a blowout, but by a team that refused to go away, recovered from 15 points down, and then executed in overtime. Cleveland now knows it can win a game like this; Minnesota now knows that a 15-point lead, even with Edwards scoring 47, is not a finished game. ## What the result means ![Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (jersey 45) in action against Minnesota at Rocket Arena, 26 October 2026](https://dcwdppdscydjemfvownz.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/api/1793113754468-whsswp-basketball-inside2-2026-10-27-evening.jpg) Smaller questions linger for both teams: whether Thomas's debut earns him a lasting rotation place, and how Minnesota turns Edwards' scoring into wins when games tighten. The missed three with 3.9 seconds left and the failure to protect a 15-point lead will feature in Minnesota's film session. Great scoring nights need closing plays around them, and on this night Cleveland supplied those plays and Minnesota, for once, did not. That is why this result, the outcome of the fixture previewed on the evening of 26 October, feels larger than an ordinary October win: a test of Cleveland's resolve, passed in overtime, and of Minnesota's unbeaten start, failed at the last. The Cavaliers left Rocket Arena at 2-1, the Timberwolves at 3-1, with an early warning attached: a 15-point lead in Cleveland is not safe when Mitchell has the ball with the game on the line. Mentions: Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards, James Harden, Evan Mobley, Meleek Thomas, Peyton Watson, Jaden McDaniels, Rudy Gobert, Rocket Arena ## Sources - [reuters.com](https://www.reuters.com/sports/nba-roundup-cavs-rally-15-down-hand-wolves-first-loss-ot--flm-2026-10-27/) - [sportstar.thehindu.com](https://sportstar.thehindu.com/basketball/nba-results-october-26-monday-cleveland-cavaliers-timberwolves-warriors-basketball-results-news/article71630427.ece) - [gmanetwork.com](https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/sports/basketball/1007314/nba-scores-today-warriors-vs-nuggets-cavs-vs-wolves-and-other-games/story/)