Timberwolves fall apart in fourth quarter for another loss in Boston

The last time the Timberwolves beat the Celtics in Boston, March 2005, a good portion of the current team's players was just starting to dominate their grade school basketball circuits.

Futility in Boston is something that connects generations of Wolves teams, and it's something this season's squad continued with a 121-109 loss Friday night at TD Garden.

The Celtics entered the night having lost five of six, but a date with the Wolves was just what they needed to snap out of their funk. Despite its struggles, Boston showed why it was a team that advanced to last season's NBA Finals with a 33-23 fourth-quarter performance that turned a close game into a rout, and showed how far the Wolves have to go to consistently win games like that.

The night played out like a big regression for the Wolves. The same problems that showed up early in the season — shoddy defensive rebounding, allowing points off turnovers, transition defense — were the main culprits.

"We have to be better in all those areas," coach Chris Finch said. "... We have been better, but when you step up in weight class like these guys are clearly, everything gets exposed."

Jaylen Brown scored 23 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter. Jayson Tatum had 30 while the Celtics had 24 fast-break points. Boston's fourth quarter included 12 second-chance points. Rebounding has been the top or near the top of issues to fix for the Wolves this season, and it was again Friday.

"We're not going to take the next step as a team until we rebound the ball better. That's just how it's going to be," Finch said. "We're not physical enough. We don't find guys. Again, a lot of times it's our wings, it's our smalls. We got to get in the fight. We got to dig it out."

Boston grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and had 20 second-chance points. The Wolves traded for one of the league's best rebounders in Rudy Gobert, who had 12. But the problem isn't Gobert or the Wolves' big men, according to Finch. Where they run into trouble — and have been going back to last season — is with their guards and wings rebounding on a consistent basis. That specifically shows up on long rebounds off jump shots.

"It's not just the bigs' job, I feel like it's on me and the guards, as well," said Jaden McDaniels, who had 17 points and six rebounds. "There's a lot of long rebounds, so I feel like during practices, we do little rebounding drills and if we get back to doing that, we'll be good."

It doesn't help the Wolves that some of their rebounding help is injured — players like Karl-Anthony Towns, Kyle Anderson and Taurean Prince. Because of that, the schedule is taxing the team's depth. Finch pressed his starters for extra minutes with the Wolves having two days off between games.

Anthony Edwards had 30 points in 40 minutes, McDaniels played 39 while D'Angelo Russell had 21 points in 39 minutes. Russell scored only three points after halftime. The Wolves also had trouble integrating Gobert into the flow of their offense, an area in which they were improving before he missed a few games because of a sprained ankle.

"We've got to find a way to maybe lengthen our rotation right here," Finch said. "Not sure who that's going to be. But we had a bunch of days off coming up here before we played our next game, so I thought maybe I'd push this unit a little bit further, a little bit deeper."

The Wolves didn't have much in the fourth quarter because of fatigue or their own baked-in inconsistencies.

"We got to up our intensity, physicality, and everything," Finch said. "Execution in the fourth quarter, that's where they really came through."

The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.