The Boston Celtics defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 104-102 on Wednesday night in Minneapolis. After a really tough loss on Monday in Houston, this was a good bounce back win for the C's against a team fighting for their playoff lives in the West. Boston leaned heavily on their defense in this one, allowing just 102 T-Wolves points on 44% shooting. The Celtics also benefited from the free throw line, attacking the rim at will and shooting 24/30 on the night from the charity stripe.
Following his monster performance on Monday in Houston, Jaylen Brown put on a show for the Timeberwolves crowd tonight. JB poured in an efficient 35 points including 5/8 from the 3-point line, while also pulling down 10 rebounds. As the playoffs begin to creep closer, it's good to see Jaylen hitting his stride at the right time of year. Jayson Tatum was the second high scorer for Boston, putting in a 22 point performance while also being the high rebounder for the game, securing 12 boards. However this performance was a little bit concerning. It's unfair to hit the panic button just yet, but Tatum's jumpshot seems to have left him recently. After shooting 2/10 from distance on Monday, Tatum followed that up with an 0/8 outing from 3 tonight. That makes him just 2 for his last 18 from deep, something to keep an eye on moving forward.
Moving forward from the concerns, it was encouraging to see the Celtics get a gritty win where they gave away a big lead but were able to pull it together and get the job done. After suffering 3 consecutive defeats after holding double digit leads a couple of weeks ago, this was one that they could've let get away but they figured it out. Despite only Jaylen and Jayson scoring over 12 points in the game, Boston was able to find a way to win and in the playoffs, it doesn't matter how you win. This win in particular keeps Boston ahead of Philadelphia by 1 game for the #2 seed in the East. Boston's next game will be against Portland, the 4th game of their 6 game road trip.
