Coming off a three game slump of increasingly depressing play, but with a whole weekend of rest, the Celtics had an opportunity to work off some frustrations against a weaker team on Monday night, and that’s pretty much what happened. The Celtics’ offense clicked along about as well as it has at any point this season, ending in a 14 point victory, 113-99, in a game that wasn’t really in doubt after the first quarter.
The first quarter was….interesting, as one would expect with the Wolves being out a starter (Garnett) and the Celtics being down two (Sullinger and Johnson). With Marcus Smart also out, one could expect the Celtics defense to be a bit porous. And it was: Karl-Anthony Towns torched the Celtics during the period, scoring 14 of the Wolves’ 26 points.
Of course, the Wolves’ defense, which isn’t anything to write home about when KG is in the lineup, was even worse without him. The Celtics were able to build a 10 point lead before their own problematic play on that end of the ball (and a few Tommy-angering fouls) allowed the Wolves to take all but three of those points right back on a 7-0 run. The Celtics had a five point lead at the end of the quarter–or to be accurate, almost the end of the quarter–when RJ Hunter buried a heave from right above the half-court line giving the Celtics a pretty lucky 8 point lead going into the second.
The Celtics built on the lead in the next quarter, running David Lee and the JV squad for about the first five minutes. At one point, it was Young, RJ Hunter, Jonas Jerebko, Evan Turner and David Lee, and the super-subs kept the lead in double digits right up until Brad began inserting the rest of the starters one at a time.
With about six minutes left in the quarter, while Wiggins was on the line trying to help his guys climb out of a nine point hole, almost the entire arena was chanting “WE WANT KG.” Wolves’ coach Sam Mitchell had told the press before the game that Garnett wasn’t going to play tonight because it was the second night of a back-to-back, even though KG had only played ten minutes the night before.
The lead stayed in the general vicinity of ten points the rest of the half, sometimes going above it, but never going too far before it. Thanks to a rather questionable defensive choice by Isaiah Thomas, Ricky Rubio got three free throws with 1.2 seconds left on the clock, instead of having a bricked three pointer count. Rubio hit two of them and the Celtics went into the locker room up 7, 60-53.
Towns, who had fourteen points in the first quarter, was scoreless in the second. The Celtics, at the half, were shooting 52% from the field and 57% from three. Normally, that kind of shooting would feel more like luck than skill, but Minnesota’s defense was such that it seemed like they were going to be getting those same open looks all night. The Celtics can’t win a track meet with a lot of teams, but they can against Minnesota.
The third quarter wasn’t quite a carbon copy of the second, but it felt like it. The Celtics kept the game out of reach. While it would be unfair to say we were looking at “All Star Game” caliber defense, it certainly wasn’t going to make anybody’s personal highlight reel. Stevens stayed with his starters late into the 3rd, and by the time Sam Mitchell called timeout and Stevens subbed Turner in for Thomas, the C’s were up 14. When the lead hit 16 and both teams started to stall, the crowd started demanding KG again and Stevens inserted the second unit. The bench stretched the lead to 20 at the end of the 3rd: 92-72.
The fourth quarter was borderline unwatchable. The teams combined to score a grand total of eight points over the first five minutes. The biggest excitement in the early going was when Zach Levine had a shot taken away due to a reviewed shot clock violation–either that or when Zeller fouled out after only 17 minutes of play. Other than that, over the first half of the fourth, it looked like both teams just kind of wanted the game to be over already. With about five minutes to go, the Wolves showed a spark of life and went on a 6-0 run over the next two minutes, but that just delayed “Gino time”.
The fans started chanting “THANK YOU KG” with a minute and a half to go, and this time, when “Gino” rolled around, KG stood up, smiled and saluted the crowd. If you have any doubts about whether KG is ready to hang it up, this should pretty much settle them. The last time KG saw Gino as a visitor, he buried his head in a towel. This was a victory lap.
Green
The C’s shot 52%, and 48% from three, and assisted on 73% of their baskets.
Gross
The Timberwolves shot 46%, and pretty much destroyed the Celtics in the paint (which, I guess you’d expect given that the C’s were down their starting center and power forward).
Greenlights
RJ Hunter from half court! https://t.co/pdXaGlagni
— John Karalis (@RedsArmy_John) December 22, 2015
I think my son just hit a half ct shot and I almost fell off the couch — Ron Hunter (@coachrhunter) December 22, 2015
An alert AB hits KO: https://t.co/bBBS1lnmvg
— KWAPT (@KWAPT) December 22, 2015
Jae and one: https://t.co/2nsyWbjRLf — KWAPT (@KWAPT) December 22, 2015
The I is for “impressive”: https://t.co/T2XN99ELtC — KWAPT (@KWAPT) December 22, 2015
KG salutes Garden crowd during Gino Time https://t.co/XvZAET0ni7
— Brian Robb (@CelticsHub) December 22, 2015
The Grid
The Celtics had two players with more than ten assists for the first time since 1997
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