The Timberwolves played well early and led by two at halftime, but the Boston Celtics held home court advantage with a strong third quarter and dominate second half overall and won with ease.
The Timberwolves are basically in must-win mode every night at this point, and while a road game against the now-43-win Celtics was always going to be a tall task, optimism abounded after Monday’s blowout win over the Wizards.
But on this night, the Celtics held serve. Additionally, both Portland and Dallas won, further complicating things while the Wolves slid to four games back from the eighth-place Denver Nuggets, who were idle on Wednesday night.
Ricky Rubio was fantastic once again, leading the Wolves in scoring with a season-high 23 points. He only had seven assists, however, as his teammates simply weren’t hitting shots like they were when he notched the franchise-record 19 assists just 48 hours prior back at Target Center.
Andrew Wiggins struggled the most, managing 21 points but on a hideous 23 shots. Karl-Anthony Towns‘ franchise-record of consecutive games of 20+ points came to an end as well, although he was relatively efficient en route to 17 points, shooting 7-of-14 from the field and grabbing 14 rebounds.
The Celtics weren’t great defensively, although they did enough to disrupt Towns that it forced Wiggins into thinking he had to play isolation basketball all night. Rubio was forced to shoot jumpers as well, which also disrupted the offense somewhat, but the Spaniard hit on eight of his 14 attempts.
Boston’s offense came to life midway through the second quarter with the majority of the Timberwolves’ starters on the bench, and that was when the tides shifted. Suddenly, seemingly all of their three-point attempts found the bottom of the net, even while the Wolves did a solid job contesting their attempts.
Nemanja Bjelica rolled his ankle in that second quarter and did not return, and Lance Stephenson left the game with what looked like a serious leg or ankle injury early in the fourth quarter shortly after entering the game for the first time.
The Wolves are now in a tough spot, and while this was always a likely ‘L’ on the schedule, the playoff hill is becoming increasingly steeper to climb for Tom Thibodeau’s bunch.
Star of the Night
Isaiah Thomas: 27 points (8-15 FG, 4-9 3P, 7-7 FT), 4 assists, 3 rebounds, one steal, 2 turnovers
Thomas was great throughout. Rubio checked him well, even pick-pocketing him for a steal in the first quarter, but the Wolves’ pick-and-roll defense wasn’t quite on-point this time around. Thomas’ quickness allowed him to shoot over the top of late-closing bigs or beat the Wolves’ defense to the rim.
Notable Timberwolves Lines
- Ricky Rubio: 23 points (8-14 FG, 3-5 3P, 4-4 FT), 7 assists, 3 rebounds, one steal, one turnover
- Karl-Anthony Towns: 17 points (7-14 FG, 1-5 3P, 2-2 FT), 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 turnovers
- Andrew Wiggins: 21 points (9-23 FG, 2-4 3P, 1-4 FT), 4 assists, 4 rebounds, one turnover
- Shabazz Muhammad: 21 points (7-14 FG, 0-5 3P, 7-8 FT), 3 rebounds, one assist, one block
Rubio was great, as mentioned. Towns was also solid, while Wiggins was a mess for nearly the entire game before picking up some easy points as the game was virtually out of reach in the final minutes.
Muhammad was effective, although he missed all five of his three-point attempts from beyond the arc, including a couple that would have been huge given the timing of the tries.
Next: The Timberwolves Playoff Hopes Are Still Alive...
Who’s Up Next?
The Timberwolves head down to Miami to take on the Heat at 7:00 p.m. Central Time on Friday night. The game will be televised on NBA TV.