Horford stars as Celtics snare Timberwolves
Blazers surprise Spurs to bounce back from loss to Pelicans
Al Horford delivered 20 points and nine rebounds as the Boston Celtics continued their domination over the Minnesota Timberwolves with a 117-104 win on Wednesday.
Boston won their 10th game in the last 11 thanks to a 21-6 run bridging the halves, a complete game by Horford and a stellar Isaiah Thomas performance.
Horford just missed his second career triple double as he also had eight assists.
“We needed [Horford] to be locked in tonight because [Karl-Anthony] Towns is a real talented guy. So Al had that assignment on the other end for a lot of the game,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said.
It marked the 11th consecutive win for the Celtics over Minnesota at the Boston Garden arena.
Thomas scored 27 points, Avery Bradley had 18, and Kelly Olynyk and Marcus Smart both scored 10 off the Boston bench. Olynyk added six rebounds.
“The guys were finding me a lot in the pick-and-roll action, and I was able to make plays,” said Horford, who has 47 points, 21 rebounds and 16 assists in the past three games.
Ricky Rubio led the Timberwolves with 23 points and seven assists. Andrew Wiggins and Shabazz Mohammad each scored 21 points and Towns
Wednesday’s games:
Dallas Indiana Boston Miami Utah Houston Memphis Portland Sacramento Milwaukee 112 98 117 120 97 139 98 110 107 97 Washington Charlotte Minnesota New Orleans Detroit L.A.Lakers Chicago SanAntonio Phoenix L.A.Clippers 107 77 104 112 83 100 91 106 101 96 finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds for Minnesota.
Elsewhere, Damian Lillard scored 36 points, including four free throws in the final five seconds, as the Portland Trail Blazers stunned the San Antonio Spurs 110-106.
CJ McCollum added 26 points for the Trail Blazers.
Portland were able to bounce back from a one-sided 100-77 loss to New Orleans on Tuesday.
Kawhi Leonard finished with 34 points, nine rebounds and six assists for San Antonio.