Celtics hold off Timberwolves for fifth straight win

Jaylen Brown fired up the crowd by draining five 3-pointers in the game’s first four minutes and finished with 28 points. Jayson Tatum had another uneven shooting night, going 8 for 21, but added 26 points and 8 rebounds. The Celtics connected on 21 of 56 3-pointers.

Anthony Edwards had 28 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists to lead the Wolves.

The Celtics led, 79-60, with 4:26 left in the third quarter and appeared poised for a low-stress victory. But this team has occasionally struggled to put the finishing touches on blowouts, and in this case, the Timberwolves pushed back.

A Jaden McDaniels dunk with 2:06 left cut Boston’s lead to 104-102, and after Tatum missed a jumper, Edwards lined up a 3-pointer from the top of the key that would have given his team its first lead since the start of the second quarter. The shot was short, and at the other end Brown connected on his seventh 3-pointer.

But Randle hit one of two free throws before adding a layup that made it 107-105 with 33.6 seconds left. Brown missed a deep 3-pointer and DiVincenzo collected the rebound and drove upfield in transition, but Minnesota’s bench stopped the spurt with a timeout with 7.1 seconds left.

Edwards took the ensuing inbounds pass and appeared to get a step on Jaylen Brown as he ran into the paint. But he sent a pass to McDaniels in the right corner, and McDaniels swung the ball to Reid at the top of the key. He rushed to get a shot off, but it was ruled to be after the buzzer as it caromed off the rim.

As it turned out, Boston’s early work held up. In the first quarter, Brown hit 3-pointers on three consecutive Celtics possessions. After Jrue Holiday temporarily stopped Brown’s surge by missing a layup, Brown connected on another. The crowd began to sense that something unusual was about to happen, and many fans lined Boston’s next possession, which ended with Brown draining a deep, fadeaway 3-pointer from the right arc over the outstretched arm of Wolves center Rudy Gobert.

At this point, everyone was anxious to find out if Brown would ever miss this day, including Brown himself. But his ambitious attempt a play later was an airball, and he scored just two more points in the rest of the half.

The end of the Browns’ surge coincided with an 11–0 Minnesota surge in which the Celtics were held scoreless for 5 minutes and 36 seconds. When Holiday hit two free throws with 2:50 left, it ended the drought and gave the Celtics their first non-Brown points.

Tatum typically plays the entire first quarter before sitting the first few minutes of the second, but that rotation changed Sunday, perhaps to keep Brown on the court while he was in a rhythm. And that left Tatum in the lead for the second period.

After his scoreless opening quarter, he hit two early 3-pointers and had 13 points in the second. He helped ignite Boston’s 8-0 spurt to start the period, and the Celtics’ work on the offensive glass — they had 10 second-chance points in the quarter — allowed them to stretch their lead to 55-43 with 3:14 left.

But then the Celtics hit their second long drought of the half and were held scoreless the rest of the way, helping the Wolves pull within 55-52 at halftime. Minnesota held a 28-8 edge in paint points in the first half, which helped it offset the Celtics’ 12 3-pointers.

However, this Boston team is capable of turning a tense game into a lopsided one pretty quickly. And with the Wolves trailing, 55-54, two Tatum 3-pointers capped a 14-0 burst that was made in just three minutes.

Three-pointers are usually at the center of Boston’s surges, but this team has the pieces to be elite defensively as well. During a two-play sequence, White knocked a Nickeil Alexander-Walker 3-pointer out of bounds before choking Edwards and sending his 15-footer back. At the other end of the floor, Tatum waved to the fans to show their appreciation for White.

The Celtics led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter before the Wolves began chipping away at the deficit. A 3-pointer from the left arc by Edwards with 6:18 left in the fourth pulled Minnesota within 95-91.

Adam Himmelsbach can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.