BSJ Game Report: Boston Celtics 134, Minnesota Timberwolves 112 - C's dominate again and climb into first after sixth straight win

Everything you need to know about the Boston Celtics win over the Minnesota Timberwolves with BSJ insight and analysis. 

IN A NUTSHELL

This was basically a repeat of the win in Denver, with the other team’s big man coming out big in the first quarter and making this look like it will be a tough one. Then once he sat, the Celtics took off and never looked back. This time it was Karl-Anthony Towns with 12 points in the first but the Celtics defense clamped down and the Boston put on a show from the second quarter on to cruise to the win. 

HEADLINES

Another show against a good team: Boston isn’t just beating good teams, they're decimating them. The Celtics have held 20 point leads in six straight games now, and they were up by 28 at one point in this one. 

The Jays…AGAIN: 65 combined points for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on 24-41 shooting. 

Shutting down KAT: Towns did anything he wanted in his first stint, making me think he was going to go for 50 in the game. After scoring 12 in the first quarter, he had 7 the rest of the way. Just an amazing effort to shut him down. 

"He's a heavy right hand driver; he got to his right hand two or three times. Try to send him left a little bit better, which we did,” Ime Udoka said. “Just taking up his air space on the perimeter … I think we just increased our physicality, took away his air space and not getting those easy opportunities he had in the first quarter."

Top seed! The Sixers lost to the Phoenix Suns, so Boston has now moved into a tie for first with Miami. The Celtics own the tiebreaker, so they are currently the top seed after being 11th in early January. 

Robert Williams injured: It's unclear when in the game it happened but he left in the third quarter and didn't return.

"He said it wasn't even a specific play that he remembers," Ime Usoka explained. "(He) came out of the game, had some pain, obviously went back to get checked out and was in quite a bit of pain, and he'll get scanned in the morning and we'll know then."

Udoka says the pain is on the lateral side of Williams' left knee. He will not travel to Toronto.

TURNING POINT

The Celtics opened the second quarter on a 17-4 run to break open a 4 point game. Derrick White scored the first 8 Celtics points of that run on a 3-pointer, a 3-point play, and 2 free throws. Boston won the quarter 38-19 and never looked back. 

FIVE UP

Jayson Tatum: Another efficient night for Tatum who dropped 34 points on 12-21 fg (5-11 3pt). He added 6 assists, 5 rebounds, a steal, and a block. When the TWolves were making a tiny run with Tatum on the bench, he came in and the Celtics immediately scored three straight baskets. 

Jaylen Brown: He basically matched Tatum with a 12-20 shooting night on his way to 31 points. He added 10 rebounds for good measure. 

Robert Williams: Before the injury, Williams was everywhere on the floor. 

“Rob did a great job of just finding loose balls and getting second-chance opportunities for us,” White said after the game. Williams had a nose for the ball and extended possessions that Boston later scored on, which is a key element to these blowouts. 

Payton Pritchard: He came in and hit his first three 3-pointers. He finished with 11 points and also 5 assists while showing some high-energy defense. His patience on some offensive possessions was impressive. 

Derrick White: I think we can officially say he’s out of his shooting slump. He was 4-6 from the field and 2-4 from deep on his way to a very nice 15 point, 6 assist game. 

“Your mind kinda goes crazy, trying to critique this little thing here, this little thing there. But just trying to stick to the basics,” White said of dealing with the shooting slump. He never seemed to press, though, which may have helped him get out of it sooner. “Just try to stay confident, do what the game tells me to do. If it tells me to shoot, shoot it. It tells me to drive, drive it. So I feel like that's when I'm at my best. Just try not to think and just react.”

ONE DOWN

Grant Williams: He had a rough time with Towns and he struggled a little bit from beyond the arc again. The good news is he hit a late 3-pointer and seeing one fall can be all it takes to get back on track sometimes.

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Just play basketball and worry about the seeding later

The Celtics are now the top seed in the East, something that seems to have become a bit of a booby prize at the moment because the “winner” might end up getting a mostly-healthy Brooklyn Nets team in the first round. 

However, nothing is set in stone, and with the everything so tight, any notion of trying to engineer a certain path is a fool’s errand.

“We’re not concerned about that. Winning, health and playing the best basketball at the right time,” Udoka said of the team’s priorities. “There’s too much closeness to try to maneuver and manipulate things and pick an opponent, you can go from 1-4 and 5, 6, 7 can flip in a night, so we’re not concerned with that.”

Udoka is right on the money with this thought process. Boston is first right now and they could finish the year in fourth. All it would take at this point is one or two losses over the final seven games and everything changes. Beyond that, there's no guarantee on the bottom end of the standings, either. A team being targeted as an opponent can rise or fall a spot in a blink. 

Boston has created a great situation for themselves. Where they fall in the standings doesn’t matter, and there's no reason to push anyone too hard in pursuit of a particular seed.

“We’ve got some guys who got some nicks now and we’ve got to be smart about it,” Udoka said. “Home court advantage is the main thing and wherever the chips fall, they kind of fall, but playing the best basketball at the right time, keeping guys healthy and picking a game if we can get guys one, that’s what we’re looking at now.”