Post Game - Celtics at Timberwolves - Monday, November 06 (L-OT)

Celtics Wrap: Timberwolves Outlast Boston, Win Overtime Battle Of Stars

https://sports.yahoo.com/m/56342e35-9978-3f20-af48-b151f8784e52/celtics-wrap-timberwolves.html

In their first overtime game of the season, the Boston Celtics fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves for their first defeat of the season in a 114-109 loss.

Boston falls to 5-1 while Minnesota moves to 4-2.

You can check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY

In Monday’s contest, runs and stars changed the game.

Boston could not have gotten a better first minute of action. A block from Kristaps Porzingis, a steal for Jrue Holiday and a pair of transition dunks for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

After the hot start, the Timberwolves stepped up to give Boston its greatest challenge since beating the Miami Heat in the home opener. Minnesota followed its stars Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert into a three-point lead to end the first quarter.

From there, the series of runs commenced. The Celtics scored the first eight points of the second quarter while the Timberwolves enjoyed an 11-3 run in the third quarter.

In a matchup in which stars led the way, two key Celtics set up a comeback to open up top talent. Payton Pritchard pushed the floor while Sam Hauser delivered multiple key three-pointers as Boston worked to erase a seven-point deficit. Tatum responded with a clutch go-ahead three-pointer. The Boston star scored 12 points in the fourth quarter alone.

After Jaylen Brown’s potential game-winner bounced off the rim, the talented teams went back to battle in overtime. In the extra period, Edwards ignited a 9-0 run for the Timberwolves to put the game away and finish with 38 points.

After a dominant run to start the season, the Celtics had their first bump in the road.

STARS OF THE GAME

— Brown showed up for Boston, pouring in 26 in between a highlight reel of dunks.

— Tatum stayed in rhythm for the Celtics, delivering 32 points with a presence inside the arc on Monday night.

— Porzingis made a number of key plays for the Celtics on both sides of the ball, tallying 20 points, including two three-pointers, with a block and five rebounds.

WAGER WATCH

Porzingis entered Monday night at +165 to score 20+ points, per FanDuel SportsBook. With his high-scoring outing, a $100 wager on Porzingis would have cashed for $165 and a $265 total payout.

The Celtics travel to Philadelphia for a playoff rematch with the 76ers at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.

Edwards scores 38, Wolves hand Celtics 1st loss with 114-109 OT victory

https://news.yahoo.com/edwards-scores-38-wolves-hand-041833660.html

BRIAN HALL
Mon, November 6, 2023 at 11:18 PM EST·2 min read

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Anthony Edwards scored eight of his 38 points in overtime, and the Minnesota Timberwolves sent the Boston Celtics to their first loss of the season with a 114-109 win on Monday night.

Jaden McDaniels added 20 points, and Rudy Gobert added 14 points and 12 rebounds as Minnesota improved to 4-0 at home in a third consecutive victory.

Jayson Tatum had 32 points and Jaylen Brown added 26 for the Celtics. Boston's 6-0 start was its best since 2009-10.

Naz Reid scored 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter and helped Minnesota overcome foul trouble for Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished with seven points in just 28 minutes before fouling out in overtime.

Kristaps Porzingis, who was questionable before the game with a stye, scored 20. The Celtics were without starting guard Derrick White for the second straight game due to personal reasons.

Neither team led by more than eight in a matchup of teams with the best offensive and defensive ratings early in the season.

The game was an offensive stalemate late in regulation, with McDaniels scoring the final points on a 3-pointer for a 101-101 tie with 1:41 remaining. The teams combined for five missed shots and four turnovers in the final 90 seconds of regulation.

Mike Conley put Minnesota ahead for good at 106-105 on a 3-pointer with 3:08 left in overtime, then Edwards hit three consecutive jumpers to finish a 9-0 run.

McDaniels hit a jumper with 16 seconds left after Tatum had pulled the Celtics within three.

Edwards was 15 of 25 from the field and had nine rebounds and seven assists.

UP NEXT

Celtics: At Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Timberwolves: New Orleans at home Wednesday.

It's all you can ask. Being in a position to win every game...Check. These are Boston's peers. No one has ever gone 82-0. 73-9 is very close. That's ridiculous. And that team still lost in the Finals. All this sans DW. We're going to need him come Wednesday. Not much to say. I'm cool.

db

I only watched the first half because the game didn't even start until 10pm my time, and I'm an early bird.

Ant Edwards is the real deal. He's another one of these up-and-coming superstars. He is straight out of the Donovan Mitchell mode, and we know how explosive he can be.

3 points on 1-5 from Horford in 36 minutes. Unacceptable. Credit for 4 assists and only 2 turnovers, but we need more than that from you, Al. He's shooting 38.5% on the season so far, 25% from 3. When you get older the first things that go are the legs and the first place you start to see the legs going is in long-range shooting. He started because of the Minny twin tower front court of Gobert and Townes. They are SUCH a big team. Kyle Anderson is 6'9" too, and he's a SF.

I'm still loving Jrue, but he shot 4-16 for 12 points last night. If there's a consolation his counterpart Mike Conley was only 3-5 for 8 points.

Sam with a credible performance. Not stellar, but good enough.

Pritchard with another goose egg. 0-3, no points, 3 assists and zero turnovers. Preseason is fool's gold. You wanted playing time, Payton, you asked for a trade so you could get it, you just signed a nice contract extension. Now you have to play like you deserve it all and, so far, you haven't even shown up much less come close.

Joe went with, effectively, an 8 man squad last night even though it was OT. Lamar got 4 minutes and Svi got 4 in a 53 minute game. That leaves 225 player minutes (53 minutes - 8 = 45 minutes X 5 players) to be divided between 8 players. Whatever growth Joe claims to have added this season spreading out the minutes isn't one of them. This is unsustainable. Either he needs to play his bench more or Brad needs to get him a bench he has confidence in. To be fair to Joe their bench outscored ours 27-16, so maybe his concerns are legit.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 4 hours ago
BOSTON CELTICS HISTORY Games with... 32 points 5 rebounds 5 steals 8 - Larry Bird 1 - Rick Fox, Antoine Walker, Paul Pierce, Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum Tatum became the 6th Celtic to do it Monday night in Minneapolis, the first since Rozier (March 2018 at Sacramento).

Another entry in the Celtic's record book for individual achievement for Tatum. I don't care. Of those 6 players only 2 won Championships.


The key to winning this game was hitting from outside. You have to open up the floor against Gobert and Townes. We shot 28% from 3. Tatum 2-8, Al 1-4, Z 2-6, Jrue 1-4. Only Jaylen, of our starters, shot an acceptable 3-8. Our starters shot 9-30 from 3. That's not going to cut it, especially if the coach is going to play the starters over 75% of the minutes.

I'm grasping at straws here, given my limited visibility into him, but I think Queta might have helped us against Nazr Reid, who is a beast. Luke did an adequate job in the half I watched, I'm not faulting him, but being able to insert a bull would have been helpful.

Shooting 39% against the league's #1 defense is understandable. Them shooting 52% against the league's #7 defense is not.


Oh well, what the Hell. We're still 5-1 and that's excellent. I was, and am still, concerned about our bench. Either they're the problem or Joe's unwillingness to go deeper into it is the problem but they are not productive. Next!


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401584782


Bob


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Timberwolves are definitely a team alot of people overlooked, McDaniels if his improvement is not a fluke and Edwards continues his all star ascension with still improving Naz Reid, they have a lot of firepower. KAT had a terrible game and they still won.

Edwards is scary good.

Wolves played some tough D, and we didn't make the good looks that were available.

Tough game, but it was winnable. Edwards is a beast, he made the big shots.

Didn't expect to go 82-0, got to bounce back, big game on Wednesday with Philly.

Edwards is so smooth!!

Our lack of bench depth was exposed because of foul trouble and DWhite's absence. We let this one slip away. We still had a chance.

On to the next game, this is a highly talented but very thin team. Keeping my fingers crossed for the season.

Wins and losses always seem to correlate to makes and misses.

I believed that the Celtics could win against the top defensive team by shooting the 3 ball with accuracy.  They can win even when their 3 point shooting is off but the 3 pointer is very much a part of their DNA as a team.  They went an abysmal 11-39 (28.2%)  Combine that with 8 missed free throws and 18 turnovers and that put them on the wrong side of the win/loss column.

This OT game came down to a couple of possessions.  We witnessed a few strange turnovers.

Derrick White's absence cannot be overstated.  Our bench guys only managed to score 16 points and 11 of that came from San Hauser.

Lamar Stevens got a 4 minute look and I would have like to see more of him.  Maybe you play him more and let him chase McDaniels around. He averages around 10 PPG but dropped 20 in this game.  Anthony Edwards has some MJ in him (the way he moves and scores off bank shots) plus his physical profile and top of the charts athleticism.  

The Celtics did a good job when they brought their trap defense but down the stretch he single handedly smoked the Celtics as they loss their defensive connection.

We are still only 6 games in. Still a small sample size with a very acceptable 5-1 record but my concerns for the overall depth on this team remains.  We need to play Brissett and/or Stevens more minutes to level up our defensive rotation.  In games where one of our top 6 is not suited up we need to go defense first with his replacement.    

The Sixers are the focus tonight.  I have no feelings one way or the other for most teams in the NBA with respect to my distain for them.  Some folks hate the Lakers the most but that is mostly related to the historical rivalry in championship play.  

My top 5 "I hate you" list ( Sixers, Knicks, Heat, Bucks and Flakers)

Expect the Celtics to beat the Sixers in Philly tonight.

The Celtics lost that game because, as usual, they were relying on Jayson Tatum too much. Jrue had a rough game offensively, Jaylen was hot and cold, hit some big shots at times, but again, they were waiting for the miracle worker to pull it off. There is no doubt, the absence of White was big, this was a game where we needed better defense. Give the TWolves credit, they smelled blood and went right at it. The overtime was a nightmare, as was the bench except for Luke, who keeps kicking dirt in my face for not believing in him!! Pritchard is showing that size matters, the preseason is over, put on the big boy pants and start playing with the big guys the way you have said you can. If not, there will be a move, I guarantee it, and he will be further down the bench again