Game Story
21 years.
Sunday evening, the Minnesota Timberwolves visited the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, a place where the Wolves hadn’t won since March 6, 2005. That’s not a typo. Kevin Garnett still played for Minnesota, where he scored a team-high 21 points in a narrow 99-97 victory (Ricky Davis missed a game-winning 3-point attempt at the buzzer).
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And no, Bruce Lee was not alive during that victory either (RIP).
It’s no surprise to Wolves fans that Minnesota started off the game slow. Slow starts have become a part of their DNA. The Celtics have also been winners of their last five games, utilizing the momentum of Jayson Tatum’s return to catapult themselves into contention for the top Eastern Conference seed. So when Minnesota found themselves down 2 to 11 to start the game, it felt all too familiar.
During the NBA trade deadline and Giannis Antetokounmpo trade saga just over a month ago, a large part of the Wolves fan base pointed to three reasons for why “blowing it up” would’ve been the wrong decision. The marked improvement of Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid’s production, and to a much lesser extent, Julius Randle’s early season heater.
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The first half was not a good one for that camp.
With all the offensive usage that needed to be soaked up sans Edwards, McDaniels was super cold early. Naz Reid, who had just missed the last two contests with a nagging shoulder injury he’s been nursing for some time, was also off target in his first half stint. In fact, it was only when those two went to the bench when Minnesota battled all the way back from a 15-point second quarter.
Oh, and don’t think I forgot about Julius Randle, who also missed seven of his first eight shots.
It was the aggressive point-of-attack pressure defense and quick offensive decision-making of Bones Hyland and Ayo Dosunmu that spearheaded a 33-21 second quarter. We even got a destructively productive three-minute stint by Jaylen Clark, who defended Jaylen Brown successfully in isolation and rebounded the ball well all game! Right as the first half buzzer sounded, Hyland capped off a team-best 14-point half with a patented step-back triple and celly to boot.
It felt unsustainable for Minnesota to continue their scorching hot second quarter performance where they went 50% from the field and 62.5% from beyond the arc. It also seemed improbable that Tatum, who had been averaging nearly 20 points per game this season, would remain scoreless in the second half.
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It felt unsustainable because it was.
Tatum opened up the third quarter on a personal mission, scoring 10 points in a matter of minutes to help engineer an 11-0 Boston run right out of the gates. Meanwhile, the Wolves compounded that by missing their first five shots of the half, erasing all the hard work they did in the previous quarter. But once again, it was the Dosunmu who came to the rescue with some nasty driving layups, as well as playmaking for others, which resuscitated Minnesota.
The previously frigid McDaniels came to the party at a time of a need. A pair of easy shots close the rim broke the seal for him to uncork 12 points in a three minute span. Hyland, the first half hero, continued his tirade in the fourth quarter, terrorizing Celtics rookie, Hugo González, taunting him along the way. Hyland joined the NBC Peacock broadcast crew after the game to share that March is always an emotional month for him, as this was the month where he lost his grandmother and baby brother in a terrible fire tragedy.
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A year after a tragic fire, high-major recruit Nah’Shon Hyland has his groove back
He certainly made them proud tonight.
This all bought just enough time for the previously struggling Naz Reid to enter the picture in the only way he knows how: An offensive showcase that was a delight to all the senses.
A personal 8-0 run by Reid suddenly pushed the Wolves ahead by as much as 12 with just six minutes remaining in the game. There was just but a faint heartbeat from Boston at this point. However, the Wolves had nearly blown a similar lead in more chaotic fashion when the two teams faced off in November.
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Oh, don’t think I forgot about Randle.
Despite an otherwise disappointing overall effort from him all game, he did assist Reid on two of his makes before scoring five of his own points in a row to help keep the Celtics at bay. It was poetic that the man who started it all, Ayo Dosunmu, would slam the door shut with his amazing play on both ends of the court. Another beautiful driving layup dagger, standing up Brown to force a miss, then a vicious block on Ron Harper Jr.
The Wolves victory keeps them in an essential three-way tie with the Rockets and Nuggets for the fourth through sixth seeds in the Western Conference, and four games above the seventh play-in tournament.
It only seemed fitting that on the same day that the Wolves debuted an exclusive Michael Grady interview with Kevin Garnett, Minnesota would end their drought in Boston. Not only is Garnett going to have his jersey retired for both franchises, but think about KG’s black tree jersey. What number is on the back of his jersey?
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The number of years it’s been since the Timberwolves won at TD Garden.
Box Score
Comment of the Night
Naz Reid.
Up Next
One of the two most important games of the season comes up for the Wolves. They return home to host the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, March 25, at 8:30 PM CT. Houston is tied with the Wolves in the standings and currently hold a 1-0 season series lead on them with two games remaining. This is particularly imperative to Minnesota because they’ve already lost tiebreakers to the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, meaning this could be the only series they can still snag.
This game will be broadcast on ESPN and FanDuel Sports Network.