It looked for all the basket fans like the Boston Celtics’ unbeaten start to the season at home would come to an end. The Minnesota Timberwolves dominated the Celtics for the first 45 minutes of the game at TD Garden. The teams with the two best records in the NBA made the battle very hard and finally, the Celtics held their nerve to win an overtime thriller. After winning 17 straight in Boston to start the season, the Celtics faced a Minnesota team missing Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert.
It seemed like the situation was out of control for the Celtics during the final minutes of the game but then Jayson Tatum took over. The American power forward scored 18 of Boston’s final 25 points, including outscoring Minnesota (12-9) in overtime, finishing with a game-high 45, as the Celtics set a franchise record with their 18th consecutive home win of the season, a 127-120 victory over the Timberwolves. Minnesota hasn’t won a game in Boston since the 2004-05 season.
Jaylen Brown chipped in with 35 points and 11 rebounds for the Celtics. Tatum and Brown have now scored at least 35 points in a game four times in their careers. Tatum put the Celtics up 122-120 with a layup with 1:04 left in overtime and extended the advantage to five with a 3-pointer with 51 seconds left. He made two free throws with 12.7 seconds left to complete the score.
Anthony Edwards led the game for the Timberwolves with 29 points. Karl-Anthony Towns contributed with 25 points and 13 rebounds while Naz Reid recorded 19 points and 10 rebounds.
We were kind of sluggish to start the game, most of the game, Tatum said after recording a memorable win. Really, that last six minutes in the fourth and overtime, we really kind of played like ourselves. That’s kind of the scary thing for, like, 12 minutes of the game, that’s the only time we really played like ourselves on both ends, and we still managed to win the game. That just shows that we can be a really special team, Tatum added.
Tonight was just a night where we’re playing against a young superstar in Anthony Edwards, where he’s going to be aggressive, Brown said. He’s young. He wants to play against big names and big teams because it’s an opportunity for him to showcase his greatness. We can’t let him do what he’s been doing to everybody else, to us, especially after the first matchup, Brown concluded.
