Jaylen Brown scored 29 points and Jayson Tatum finished with 26 points and eight rebounds to help the Boston Celtics extend their winning streak to five games by beating the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves 107-105 on Sunday.
Brown made 7 of his 10 3-point attempts, including five in the opening quarter.
The Timberwolves are winless in their past 18 road games against the Celtics. Minnesota’s last win in Boston came in March 2005.
Minnesota was within two points, 107-105, after Julius Randle’s layup with 33.6 seconds to play. The Timberwolves had the ball trailing by two with 7.1 seconds left, but Naz Reid missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer that would have given Minnesota the win.
Anthony Edwards had 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, Randle finished with 23 points and Rudy Gobert added 10 points and 20 rebounds for the Timberwolves.
Minnesota, which shot 42 percent from the field, has lost five of its past seven games.
Derrick White added 19 points and nine rebounds for Boston, which made 21 of its 56 3-point attempts (37.5 percent).
Brown opened the game with five 3-pointers to help the Celtics build a 15-6 advantage. Boston missed 11 consecutive shots later in the quarter and an 11-0 run allowed Minnesota to go in front 17-15. The Timberwolves led 27-24 after one quarter.
Boston led 53-43 after two free throws by Tatum with 3:39 remaining in the second quarter and extended the lead to 12 later in the second, but Minnesota scored the final nine points in the quarter and the Celtics had a 55-52 halftime lead.
Boston scored 14 of the first 18 points in the third quarter to stretch its lead to 69-56. The Celtics had a 19-point lead — its largest of the game — after Xavier Tillman’s layup pushed Boston’s advantage to 79-60 with 4:26 to play in the third. The Celtics led 84-73 entering the fourth.
–Field Level Media
