Wolves Fall To Celtics At Home

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Jonah Ballow
Wolves Editor/Writer
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Kurt Rambis DOWNLOAD MP3 Oleksiy Pecherov DOWNLOAD MP3 Corey Brewer DOWNLOAD MP3

How quickly these Wolves grow up.

A confident Minnesota squad played a near perfect game but faltered in the closing minutes to the Celtics 92-90 on Wednesday night.

"I thought our guys have done a terrific job the last three ball games," head coach Kurt Rambis said. "They've done a good job in terms of their growth and understanding and acceptance of what we want them to do. Pockets of them executing our offense, it's getting greater, they're understanding the comprehension of what we're trying to do."

For the second time this season, the Target Center crowd was treated to an ultra-competitive performance from the new-look Wolves. Unlike the season opener, Minnesota could not connect on the final play as Boston improved to 6-0 on the season.

A surprising figure became the go-to scorer with Oleksiy Pecherov earning top billing. The 7-footer took advantage of quality minutes on the court with several game-changing shots on his way to a career-high 24 points. Pecherov and the Minnesota frontline outscored Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins, and Paul Pierce by 18 points.

"You can see the potential in Oleksiy. He's still learning how to compete in this league; he hasn't had enough time to play in this league. For a big guy, he can obviously shoot the basketball," Rambis said.

Entering the final quarter, the Wolves were locked into a battle with Kevin Garnett and the championship-minded Celtics. Pecherov drilled a deep perimeter shot after a drive-and-kick from Jonny Flynn to bring Minnesota within two points at the 1:26 mark.

Ryan Gomes missed a chance to take the lead with a failed 3-point attempt but forced a fadeaway jumper from Paul Pierce. The Wolves defense was solid all night and Gomes held Pierce to just 3-of-12 shooting from the floor.

10.2 seconds remained on the clock with the hometown crowd creating the all-important sixth-man advantage. Rajon Rondo intentionally fouled Flynn and then Corey Brewer drove to the lane looking for a potential buzzer beater. Garnett reached and grabbed the ball, effectively tying up Brewer. Much to the despair of this young Minnesota squad, the referees called a jump ball with 3.6 seconds left on the clock. After Rondo knocked the ball out of bounds, the Wolves faced one final opportunity to snag an upset win. Perkins blocked a deep 3-point attempt from Jefferson and Minnesota fell to 1-4 this year.

"I think it's encouraging -- absolutely," Rambis said. "We had our opportunities, and I told the team in the locker room, now it's just the little things. It's a turnover here, it's an inappropriate pass there, or a pass that's not made that should have been made -- it's just little things."

The Wolves arguably played their best game of the season while leading for the first time after one quarter. Crisp ball movement and quick decisions on the offensive end of the floor led to 22 team assists. Minnesota also hit 52 percent from the field in its best shooting night through five games.

Jefferson scored 11 of his 18 points in the first quarter and reached the 5,000-point plateau at the age of 24. Along side Jefferson, the starting five was balanced as each member recorded double-digit scoring numbers.

Defensively, Minnesota was aggressive in creating difficult perimeter shots from the Celtics. One of the best 3-point shooting teams was limited to only 26.3 percent behind the arc and Ray Allen was ice cold.

The Wolves will regroup tomorrow at practice before welcoming the Milwaukee Bucks to the Target Center on Friday night.

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