The Celtics started aggressively, but faded down the stretch of the second quarter to lull us all into believing we were in for another frustrating dog fight.
But they took control of the game in the second half to push their lead up as high as 17 before settling for a 104-94 win. The starters, led by Kevin Garnett, demolished the Timberwolves… scoring 82 of the Celtics 104 points.
The Green: Kevin Garnett lit up his old team for 18 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists. He just loooooooves playing against his old team.
Gotta give some love to Brandon Bass in this spot too. After a pretty non-existent first half, he erupted to score 8 points in just over 3 minutes to start the third, and finished with 12 points and 8 rebounds.
Also props to Jared Sullinger who did some serious work in 18 minutes of play. He got to the line 6 times, hit 5, got 7 boards, 2 blocks, and drew another charge. I love this kid.
And…. are you ready for this???
The Celtics out-rebounded the Timberwolves 45-41.
The Gross: The Celtics had 10 first half turnovers and spent plenty of time in the second quarter especially whipping the ball all over the floor with very little regard for where Minnesota defenders were. I can appreciate being aggressive… but they were just careless in the second quarter.
Also, Luke Ridnour picked on Rajon Rondo for a stretch in pick-and-rolls that Rondo clearly had no interest in defending.
The Greenlights:
Rondo to KG… the Causeway Street Connection
[youtube id=”oFkWGa3ALAM” width=”620″ height=”360″]Rondo splits 2 defenders and nails the floater
[youtube id=”6lnuWhH_6VU” width=”620″ height=”360″]The Grid (quick stats):
- Jason Terry shot 7-10 for 17 points, but he also grabbed 5 rebounds.
- Jeff Green shot 4-9 for 8 points in just under 23 minutes. He added 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
- Minnesota was 14-30 from the free throw line (46.7%).
- Paul Pierce tied for a team-high with 18 points, but he continues to struggle with his shot, shooting 6-15 (40%) and only 1-6 from 3.
- The Celtics gave up 13 offensive rebounds, but Minnesota couldn’t fully capitalize and they finished with 16 second chance points. The Celtics had 12 second chance points.
I’m not sure how much of Kevin Love’s crappy shooting night was defense and how much was him just sucking on the back-end of a back-to-back… but that was a huge help for the C’s. He did have early foul trouble, but that doesn’t excuse 40% shooting from the field and 50% shooting from the line. Pekovic got loose for 19 and 9, but they survived that too thanks to some hot shooting from a bunch of different guys. It seems like everyone went on little streaks where they hit a bunch of buckets in a row.
Celtics get a night off, then they start a home-and-home series with the 76’ers on Friday night.
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