It was a tale of two halves on Friday night at the Target Center. In the first half the Boston Celtics were every sluggish, there was no emotion, they shot poorly and if it wasn’t for Minnesota being such a poor team the Green would have been run out of Minneapolis in an ugly loss. But what ever Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said to the club at halftime lit a fire under there collective ass and they ended up cruising to a 95-78 win over the Timberwolves.
The first half was in a word, pitiful. The Celtics had a slow start and shot somewhere around 25% for the half. Granted they were playing a home/road back-to-back and had a long flight but the team needed a wake up call and Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo gave them one in the third quarter. Trailing 39-36 at the half Boston blew the doors off Minnesota outscoring them 35-10 in the quarter to build a 22 point lead heading into the final stanza and cruised to an easy win.
Boston (12-2) was led by Garnett who, was playing his first game in Minnesota since he got traded, had 18 points, 4 rebounds, a steal and a block. Tony Allen had 14 points off the bench, Rondo had 13 points, 7 boards, 5 asists and 3 steals and Leon Powe snatched a double-double off the bench with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Minnesota (2-9) was paced by former Celtics Al Jefferson who had a game high 23 points and Sebastian Telfair who chipped in 13 points in the loss.
The Celtics will stay overnight in Minnesota then fly on Saturday to Toronto where they play the Raptors Sunday afternoon at 12:30 p.m.
