After a brief stop in Washington to meet the President and take on the Wizards, the Celtics returned home to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. Boston’s two games against Minnesota last year were overtime thrillers with plenty of memorable moments, including a masterclass from Jayson Tatum in which he dropped 45 points in perhaps the best game of the regular season.

Going into this game, the Timberwolves are a different team this time around. Replacing Karl-Anthony Towns with Julius Randle has had mixed results to start the season, but with Anthony Edwards playing some of the best basketball of his career, Minnesota still looks like a legitimate title contender. The Timberwolves were without veteran guard Mike Conley for this game and for the Celtics, Luke Kornet was ruled out with a hamstring injury.

Jaylen Brown started the game red hot as he scored the first 15 points in the first 5 minutes for the Celtics on 5 straight threes from beyond the arc. The building was buzzing, but the rest of the Celtics couldn’t get anything going while the Timberwolves stayed in the game.

Outside of Brown’s offensive explosion, the Celtics started cold and missed every shot in the first quarter until Jrue Holiday got free throws at the 2:50 mark. Xavier Tillman got early first quarter minutes on Neemias Queta and Jayson Tatum played the entire first quarter for only the second time all season.

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The Timberwolves were able to attack the Celtics in the paint, but Payton Pritchard kept Boston in the game with 5 points off the bench. Minnesota led the Celtics 27-24 after the opening quarter as both teams appeared to be in for a defensive battle.

The Celtics offense started the second quarter and went on a 9-0 run with Rudy Gobert on the bench for Minnesota. Julius Randle kept the Timberwolves in the game with 7 straight points. He was a matchup nightmare, with Tillman and Tatum being the only bigs on the floor.

Gobert was a threat on the boards with 12 rebounds in the first half alone, but the Celtics defense was able to thwart the Timberwolves at the rim on second chances. Al Horford’s back-to-back threes in transition, a Derrick White three with a Minnesota foul under the basket, two free throws from Tatum and two free throws from Brown gave the Celtics their largest lead of the half at 12 points.

The Celtics’ defense got sloppy toward the end of the half as the Timberwolves went on a 9-0 run to cut Boston’s lead to 55-52 going into the break. Jaylen Brown (17 points) and Jayson Tatum (13 points) combined for 30 of the Celtics’ 55 points in the first half. Julius Randle led Minnesota with 14 points after two quarters and Anthony Edwards had a somewhat quiet first half with 12 points. Boston’s 12 threes powered their offense as the Celtics scored just 8 points in the paint after two quarters.

Both teams started the third quarter slowly, but a Jayson Tatum three at the 9:50 mark sparked a 14-0 run for Boston, including Jaylen Brown’s sixth three-pointer of the game. Minnesota called a timeout, but it didn’t help as Boston kept going, increasing their lead to 15 and another timeout for the Timberwolves.

Derrick White started his own block party out of the timeout when he returned a Nickeil Alexander-Walker three and denied a layup attempt by Anthony Edwards. Minnesota wouldn’t go away as Anthony Edwards began making his presence known with consecutive threes as part of an 8-0 run, but Boston was able to counter with a Holiday layup over Naz Reid and a Payton Pritchard and -1 over Rob Dillingham.

The Celtics’ largest lead of the quarter was 19, but Boston missed 7 straight from beyond the arc and Minnesota closed the deficit to 11, making the score 84–73 after the three quarters.

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Rob Dillingham became the Timberwolves’ main offensive catalyst early in the fourth quarter, scoring 8 points in the quarter as Minnesota attempted a comeback. Brown and White were able to maintain the Celtics’ lead by double digits until Donte DiVincenzo hit a three with 6:57 remaining to cut the lead to 7.

Anthony Edwards made it a four-point game with a three, but the Celtics were able to dominate the paint when Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown picked Alexander-Walker to extend the lead. After White and Edwards traded threes, Jaden McDaniels rose above everyone to make it a two-point game with two minutes left, erasing the Celtics’ 19-point lead.

With a chance to give Minnesota the lead, Anthony Edwards missed a three. Jayson Tatum grabbed the rebound and threw it ahead of the pack to Derrick White. White found Holiday who spotted Jaylen Brown running down the court for a pull-up three to make it a 5-point Celtics lead with 1:15 to go.

Julius Randle hit 1-2 from the free throw line after the Timberwolves timeout and a missed Horford three led to another Randle layup, 2-point play. Jaylen Brown brought it up for Boston, but couldn’t find anything. He dribbled out the clock and hoisted a 30-foot ball that just missed as DiVincenzo grabbed the rebound and Minnesota called a timeout with 7.1 seconds left.

Randle entered Edwards, he drove, kicked it to McDaniels in the corner, who passed it to Naz Reid at the top of the three-point line, he shoots and he rattled off the rim, the Celtics survive Minnesota’s comeback attempt.

The Jays led the way for Boston on this one, combining to score 55 points, including some big shots down the stretch. Brown finished with 29 points on 10-18 shooting from the field and 7-10 from three, while Jayson Tatum finished with 26 points and 8 rebounds. Despite the loss, Anthony Edwards finished with a stat line of 28 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists as he nearly led the Timberwolves to a win.

The Celtics’ next game is tomorrow, Monday, November 25 at 7:30 PM against the Los Angeles Clippers as part of a home game.