The Celtics lastly met their match.
On an evening when the Celtics’ offense lastly regarded mortal, it virtually didn’t matter. Kristaps Porzingis was caught in foul bother. Jrue Holiday couldn’t purchase a shot. Even with out Derrick White once more, the Celtics have been in place for a tricky street victory in Minnesota.
Then Anthony Edwards occurred.
The Timberwolves guard and quickest rising NBA celebrity scored 38 factors, together with eight in extra time. The Celtics couldn’t cease him on the courtroom, and so they couldn’t take benefit when he was off it as he handled foul bother. They didn’t get sufficient outdoors of Jayson Tatum, who scored 32 factors, or Jaylen Brown, who added 26. Instead, they dropped their first sport of the season with a 114-109 loss to the Timberwolves.
The Celtics’ offense went stale in opposition to Minnesota, the league’s high protection early this season. But they nonetheless had loads of probabilities to win. They overcame these sluggish stretches to take the lead a number of occasions. In a back-and-forth fourth quarter, that they had a late lead. Joe Mazzulla, in a boldly genius transfer, purposely known as for a foul on Rudy Gobert. He missed each, after which Brown hit a 3-pointer with two minutes left to provide the Celtics a three-point lead.
But the C’s didn’t rating once more within the fourth. Jaden McDaniels responded with a game-tying 3-pointer, and neither crew might discover a successful play in regulation. Al Horford misplaced the ball with 33 seconds left. Edwards missed a triple with 14 seconds to go. Mazzulla opted to not name a timeout, and Brown obtained a superb have a look at a 3-pointer that missed to ship the sport to extra time.
In extra time, Edwards stole the present.
Edwards picked up his fifth foul with 10:49 to go within the fourth, nevertheless it by no means mattered. The C’s by no means actually attacked him, and the younger Wolves star erupted in extra time. The Celtics led 105-103 when Tatum’s sixth turnover on an Edwards steal led to Mike Conley’s go-ahead 3-pointer. Then the Celtics stored lacking, and Edwards made three consecutive pictures – all whereas Mazzulla refused to name a timeout – because the Wolves ran away with it.
The Celtics lower it to 3 with 36 seconds left on Tatum’s steal and dunk, however McDaniels replied with a jumper on Minnesota’s subsequent possession to clinch the victory.
Other takeaways and notes from the loss:
– The Celtics, with the assistance of assessment guru and assistant Matt Reynolds, are at all times throughout alternatives to problem calls and so they earned one other key overturn within the third quarter. Karl-Anthony Towns appeared to attract a three-point play – which might have given the Wolves a five-point lead and given Holiday his fourth foul. But the C’s challenged the decision and it was dominated that Towns really dedicated an offensive foul, which gave the Wolves large man his fourth private.
But the Celtics couldn’t fairly take benefit in that third interval with Edwards out of the sport in foul bother. The sport was tied at 66 with 7:07 left within the interval when Edwards went to the bench along with his fourth foul, however the Celtics finally trailed by 5 getting into the fourth regardless of Edwards lacking these seven minutes.
– The Celtics’ bench was the unsung hero of Saturday’s win in Brooklyn, and with out Derrick White once more, the unit stepped up with an early sturdy stretch on Monday. The C’s trailed by three to start the second quarter when Mazzulla put out a lineup of Tatum with Al Horford, Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard and Luke Kornet and the group reeled off an 8-0 run to start the interval to regain management. Tatum scored six consecutive factors as he made simple paths to the rim within the decide and roll with Kornet, whereas Pritchard and Hauser held their very own defensively and on the glass.
But the bench finally didn’t give them the sort of manufacturing they did Saturday in Brooklyn. Hauser made three 3-pointers and the unit helped maintain the Celtics within the sport within the fourth quarter with Porzingis out of the sport in foul bother. But they wanted extra throughout that third quarter once they didn’t benefit from Edwards’ foul bother, particularly with Holiday – who completed the sport 4-for-16 from the sphere in 41 minutes – struggling.
– Without White, Mazzulla actually wasn’t afraid to make use of his bench and went 10 deep within the first half. It included a stunning inclusion of Lamar Stevens as the primary participant off the bench simply 3:46 within the sport as Mazzulla regarded to make use of Stevens’ versatility in opposition to Minnesota’s double-big lineup of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert. Svi Mykhailiuk additionally earned some first-quarter minutes.
– Brown had one other sizzling begin as he scored 9 factors throughout the first six minutes of the sport, together with a spotlight slam. Brown discovered a lane to the ring within the early going when Gobert tried to assist on the rim. It didn’t go nicely for the Wolves large man, as Brown flushed it with one hand on Gobert for top-of-the-line dunks of his profession.
– White missed his second consecutive sport as a result of beginning of his second little one. It’s unclear if the Celtics guard will return for Wednesday’s sport in opposition to the 76ers.
Source: www.bostonherald.com