Last
night, a pack of hungry wolves came to the door of a house, looking to find
some easy prey after a satisfying hunt in Philadelphia on the previous night.
Unfortunately for them, the house that they came to visit was the Boston Garden,
and the door they chose to knock on was answered by Kevin Garnett and his axmen
Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Jason Terry and company.
Though
they huffed and they puffed (mostly in the second quarter), the T-Wolves were ultimately
blown away by a better-by-the-game green team that put up 57 second-half points
and shot a toasty-warm 55% (52.6 for the game) while doing it.
Oh,
sure, they made the game interesting in the first half, even carrying a four-point
lead into halftime thanks in no small part to the efforts of Wolves All-Star
and double-double machine Kevin Love (19 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists), but there
was just far too much KG (18 points on 8-13 shooting, 10 rebounds, 4 assists
and 1 steal), Truth (18 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist), Jet (17 points, 5
rebounds and 2 dimes), and Rajon Rondo, who returned from his “exile to Mexico”
and picked up where he left off with 17 points and 11 assists (can’t you just smell
another streak coming?)
At
one point, it appeared as though the Celtics might have a real dogfight on
their hands (get it? Wolves/Dogs? No? Okay…!) with the tandem of Love and Nikola
“Everyone-Calls-Me-‘Non’” Pekovic (14 points, 9 boards, 2 steals) attacking the
C’s defense from all angles, but once the Celtics were able to settle down and
with Garnett tying on a cape and doing his best Superman impression, the game
ended pretty much the way the events of Superman 2 played out: Trio of super-villains
(one of them apparently played by Pekovic) comes to town and terrorizes the
locals, even gaining the upper-hand on Superman. But, after Supes settles down
(literally…with Lois Lane!), he and the fair citizens of Metropolis shut ‘em
down and send ‘em packing. 
Speaking
of settling down -- Brandon Bass, who started the night off by struggling to
find his shot, really made an impressive turnaround, coming back in the second
half to turn in one of his best all-around games of the season, scoring 12 points,
grabbing 8 boards, swatting 3 shots, snatching 2 steals and registering 1
assist. Bench counterpart Jared Sullenger also wowed with 7 points, 7 rebounds,
2 blocks and 1 assist in only 18 minutes.
Getting
back to the star of the game and a sentiment expressed that sat in my gut like
two stale donuts… Say what you want about KG loving to play his old team and
really rising to the occasion each time the Celtics face the Timberwolves, but
the fact is that The Big Ticket has been seriously holding it down for the C’s since
the first jump ball of this early season. At 36 years of age, he’s averaging
15.7 points per game -- that’s not even four points lower than his career average
of 19.3 ppg – and 7.5 rebounds per game -- 3 fewer than his career average of
10.6, so it’s not just Minny coming to town…this guy has been stellar, period.
As
for the rest of the stats: Other Timberwolves did different things, but who
cares? They weren’t the ones watching Gino on the Jumbotron. You wanna know?
Check the box score!
Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Friday, December 7th, 2012
7:00 pm
@ Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
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