Boston Celtics 85, Minnesota Timberwolves 80
In the words of the Rolling Stones, 'You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.' That about summed up tonight's game for me.
What we all wanted was for the Celtics to end the game like they started it; in a blowout. The Celtics had a 19 point lead after the first frame, and eventually got that number as high as 25. At that point I was expecting to have a nice little blowout game tonight and write a nice tidely little recap where I got to watch people bicker about whether or not Rondo being out tonight was the deciding factor. That was what we wanted.
What we got was a game that turned ugly, then hideous. The Wolves were more active (the Celtics' performances vs young athletic teams is becoming a real concern for me), then Beasley got hot, and somewhere along the line Nenad Krstic made Darko Milicic look like a legitimate top five draft pick.
Minnesota took their time, chipped away at the lead, and the Celtics just never responded. By the end of the 3rd, the T-Wolves had managed to tie the game, and the Celtics were in a bit of a free-fall.
But I think the important thing to remember here is that in the end they got the win, and its equally important to remember who put them there. The Celtics' defense locked down in the last minute, and the duo of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett managed to score 16 of the Celtics' last 18 points (the other two coming from Ray Allen when the game was already decided).
The bottom line is that if the Celtics wanted to still have a sniff at the top seed overall or at least stay ahead of the Miami Heat (and the lurking but ever vigilant eyes of Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson, from the mountain of Mordor), they couldn't afford to drop games against bottom dwelling teams like the Timberwolves. In that regard, they got what they needed, and that's enough for me.