Celtics Disrupt Timberwolves Three-Party

Good game for the Celtics tonight.  The Minnesota Timberwolves came into the Garden winning three of their last five games, winning when the make the three.  The Timberwolves are averaging around 24 3-point attempts a game this season. The Celtics, however, took away their weapon and held the Timberwolves to 8-for-29 from 3-point range to tough out a 101-97 win.  Jared Sullinger led all Celtics with a double double (24 points and 11 rebounds while Avery Bradley chipped in 19 points.  But Kelly Olynyk and Kris Humphries also made some key plays coming off the bench for the Celtics.  Olynyk scored 9 points and Humphries scored 8, but their contribution toward the win was much greater than what was captured by the box score.  There were some scary moments, of course, including two careless turnovers by Jordan Crawford late in the fourth quarter that allowed the Minnesota Timberwolves to tie up the game.  Jeff Green had another offensively quiet game (8 points on 3-11 shooting), but played some tough defense and grabbed rebounds at crucial times late in the game.   On the other side, Kevin Love led the scoring with 27 points on 9-26 shooting. This was not one of Love's All Star nights. Most significant was that the Celtics held Love to 2-11 shooting from 3-point range.   But the Celtics had a tough time stopping J. J. Barea, who sliced up the Celtic defense by repeatedly coming of screens and penetrating into the paint.  Barea racked up 11 assists with only one turnover for the game.  This was a Coach Brad Stevens type of win - a win where its seems like every player is making key contributions and a different player steps each game to carry the scoring load.  At 12-14, the Celtics won for the fifth time in seven games to hold onto first place in the Atlantic Division.