MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The talk was all about the rookies coming in, but it was a couple of veteran players that led the Cavaliers to a 98-87 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night at Target Center.

Antawn Jamison had 22 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots, while Anderson Varejao added 13 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks as the Cavs rebounded from Wednesday's dreadful 92-77 loss in Toronto to win for the third time in four games and improve to 4-3.

Jamison was not the least bit upset with the focus being on the youngsters.

"It made sense to have that talk because you have a talented group of players on both teams," Jamison said of Cleveland rookies Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson and Minnesota rookies Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams. "They are going to be the future of this league and they have been playing well so far this season.

"But every once in a while the old people can get in there and play a little bit."

Kevin Love, 23, doesn't actually qualify as an "old person," but the third-year player had 29 points and 14 rebounds for the Wolves, who fell to 2-5. He has had at least 20 points and 12 rebounds in each of the Wolves' first seven games, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 as the only other player to do so.

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But Love, who averaged 22 points and 18.5 rebounds against the Cavs in two games last season, made just 8 of 19 shots, and Minnesota, relying heavily on the pick-and-roll, shot just 39.2 percent (31-of-79.) It was even worse in the second half, when the Cavs continued to be aggressive and held the Wolves to 35.1 percent shooting (13-of-37.) Cleveland's lead was never less than seven points and grew to as many as 18 points, at 90-72, after a 3-pointer by Daniel Gibson with 7:12 left in the game.

"After the debacle in Toronto, I wanted to see how our guys were going to respond, and I got an answer," Cavs coach Byron Scott said. "They came back very focused tonight for the most part, did a lot of great things on both ends of the floor. Going in at halftime, the one thing I wanted them to do was come out and be aggressive on both ends of the floor, keep that up as much as possible, and I thought we were able to do that."

After all the pregame hype, Irving finished with 14 points, five rebounds, five assists and one blocked shot, making 5 of 12 shots and committing seven turnovers. Thompson finished with two points and two rebounds. He had one point and three rebounds at Toronto, but Scott said he was not worried about the young forward.

"He's a 20-year-old rookie," Scott said. "I'm not concerned about him at all. Tonight he played better than he did the other night. That's the bottom line -- keep trying to get better."

Rubio had 10 points, two rebounds and five assists for the Wolves, who also got 12 points and four rebounds from Williams, the No. 2 pick behind Irving.

The most compelling matchup turned out to be between Irving and Rubio, the No. 5 pick in the 2009 draft, although Irving didn't think so.

"Tonight it was great to play against Rubio, but tonight wasn't about that," he said. "It was a bounce-back game for us, going out there, competing and getting a win."

The rookie point guards played against each other for the last 6:10 of the first half, and Irving seemed to get the best of that initial matchup in helping the Cavs take a 52-45 lead. Irving had 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting, with three rebounds and four assists in 15:45 in the first half. He did have three turnovers. Rubio had five points on 2-of-4 shooting, with two rebounds and four assists in 14:25. He had one turnover and one steal.

Irving got the last word at the end of the first half, driving to the hoop and drawing Rubio's third foul with 2.2 seconds left. Irving's two free throws pushed the Cavs' lead to seven.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mschmitt@plaind.com, 216-999-4668

On Twitter: @pdcavsinsider

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