Jaylen Brown electrified the crowd by draining five 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the game and finished with 28 points. Jayson Tatum had another uneven shooting night, going 8 for 21 but adding 26 points and 8 rebounds. The Celtics connected on 21 of 56 three-pointers.

Anthony Edwards had 28 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists to lead the Wolves.

The Celtics led 79-60 with 4:26 left in the third quarter and looked poised for an easy win. But this team has occasionally struggled to put the finishing touches on blowouts, and in this case, the Timberwolves have pulled away.

A Jaden McDaniels dunk with 2:06 left cut Boston’s lead to 104-102, and after Tatum missed a jumper, Edwards lined up a 3-pointer from the top of the key that set his team would have given the first lead since the start of the match. the second quarter. The shot was short and at the other end Brown made his seventh three-pointer.

But Randle hit one of two free throws before adding a layup that made it 107-105 with 33.6 seconds left. Brown missed a deep 3-pointer and DiVincenzo collected the rebound and raced up the court in transition, but Minnesota’s bench stopped the burst with a timeout with 7.1 seconds to play.

Edwards took the ensuing inbound pass and appeared to get a step on Jaylen Brown as he ran into the paint. But he fired a pass to McDaniels in the right corner, and McDaniels swung the ball to Reid at the top of the key. He rushed to take a shot, but it was ruled to be chasing the buzzer as it sounded off the rim.

As it turned out, Boston’s early work held up. In the first quarter, Brown hit three-pointers on three consecutive Celtics possessions. After Jrue Holiday temporarily interrupted Brown’s surge by missing a layup, Brown connected on another. The crowd began to sense that something unusual was happening, and many fans favored Boston’s next possession, which ended with Brown draining a deep, faded three-pointer from the right arc over the outstretched arm of Wolves center Rudy Gobert.

At that point, everyone was eager to know if Brown would ever miss this day, including Brown himself. But his ambitious effort a play later was an airball, and he scored just two more points in the remainder of the half.

The end of Brown’s surge coincided with an 11-0 Minnesota surge in which the Celtics were held scoreless for 5 minutes, 36 seconds. When Holiday hit two free throws with 2:50 to go, it ended the drought and gave the Celtics their first points from anyone other than Brown.

Tatum typically plays the entire first quarter before sitting out the first few minutes of the second quarter, but that rotation was changed Sunday, perhaps to keep Brown on the court while he got into a rhythm. And that left Tatum in charge of the second period.

After his scoreless opening quarter, he knocked in two early 3-pointers and had 13 points in the second. He helped spark Boston’s 8-0 outburst to start the period and the Celtics’ work on the offensive glass (they had 10 second-chance points in the quarter) allowed them to extend their lead to 55-43 with 3 more: 14 to go.

But then the Celtics suffered their second extended drought of the half and were held scoreless for the rest of the game, leaving the Wolves at 55-52 at halftime. Minnesota had a 28-8 edge in paint points in the first half, offsetting the Celtics’ 12 3-pointers.

However, this Boston team is able to turn a close match into a lopsided one quite quickly. And with the Wolves trailing, 55-54, two 3-pointers from Tatum capped a 14-0 burst in just three minutes.

Three-pointers are usually the focus of Boston’s advance, but this team also has the pieces to be elite defensively. During a two-play sequence, White hit a Nickeil Alexander-Walker 3-pointer out of bounds before smothering Edwards and returning his 15-footer. On the other side of the room, Tatum gestured to the fans to show their appreciation for White.

The Celtics led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter before the Wolves began to close the deficit. A 3-pointer from the left arc by Edwards with 6:18 left in the fourth pulled Minnesota within 95-91.

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.