Ticked off Timberwolves believe 'we definitely got better' in loss to Celtics

Minnesota missed an opportunity to steal a win in Boston.

Despite everything going wrong leading up to Wednesday night’s game, the Timberwolves put themselves in a position to steal a win over the Celtics in Boston.

They entered the fourth quarter up six and led by as many as nine in the frame. The Wolves were up by seven when Nickeil Alexander-Walker knocked down a 3-pointer with 2 minutes, 46 seconds remaining in the contest. It seemed the type of game a team with the top-ranked defense in the NBA would be able to close out.

Then the sequence looked like this:

Jayson Tatum drove in for a layup. Alexander-Walker was called for an offensive foul for a turnover on the Wolves’ next possession. Then Tatum hit a 3. After a couple fruitless possessions on both ends, Karl-Anthony Towns fouled Tatum while shooting and he knocked down 1 of 2 free throws to cut the gap to 109-108.

Derrick White grabbed an offensive rebound on Tatum’s miss on the second attempt, and the Celtics passed the ball around the key until they found Jrue Holiday wide open in the right corner and he drilled a 3-pointer to put Boston up 111-109 with 25.3 seconds remaining.

“Defensively, just got loose in pick-and-roll, weren’t able to stop ‘em coming down hill and when we were, they opened up a lot of shooters,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters postgame.

Anthony Edwards got to the rim on the other end and was fouled shooting a layup. He made both of his free throws and the Wolves got a stop on the other end with Jaden McDaniels at the hip of Tatum when he released his buzzer-beating shot attempt.

Overtime. 

But McDaniels fouled out early in the overtime session, and then it was the Tatum takeover. A dunk here, some free throws there, and then the Celtics star had a sequence in which he had a layup and knocked down a 3 in a 13-second span that put Boston up five with 51 seconds remaining to essentially ice the game away.

“We just, honestly, needed to get a stop. And when we really needed to get a stop, we just did a lot of good things and they just made tough shots,” Towns told reporters. “Credit to them. They made the shots when they had to, they made the plays when they had to.”

The Timberwolves, on the other hand, did not make the plays when it counted, a sentiment shared by everyone who spoke postgame.

“We should’ve won this game. All credit to the Celtics, they took it from us,” Finch said. “We did everything we wanted to do to put ourselves in a position to win, our offense broke down at the end and so did our defense, too. Lots of mental errors on both ends.”

Kyle Anderson put it almost exactly the same way, saying the Celtics “made plays at the end of the game. We didn’t, so it was a tough one.” Down the stretch, Boston showed why it has the best record in the NBA, making every play when it counted.

The Wolves are right there with the Celtics, competing for the best record in the league. Wednesday was a missed opportunity. They’ll learn from the loss, no doubt, but it has to sting knowing they were minutes away from the series sweep, even with all the adversity they faced leading up to the game.

“All of our guys in here, we don’t like losing, but I think we definitely got better tonight,” Anderson said. “I think we’ve seen that we gotta have discipline to beat the disciplined teams. … We’re obviously all pissed off, we like winning, but we’re gonna learn from it. We’re gonna watch some film and get better.” 

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) hangs his head as he heads for the bench during overtime of a 127-120 loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden in Boston on Jan. 10, 2024 :: Winslow Townson / USA TODAY Sports