T’wolves overpower Celtics
MINNEAPOLIS — Nikola Pekovic bruised and battered the overmatched Boston front line for 29 points to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 110-100 victory over the Celtics on Monday night.
Andrei Kirilenko had 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists, and Dante Cunningham scored 19 points off the bench for the Wolves, who delivered coach Rick Adelman his 998th career victory.
Avery Bradley scored 19 points for Boston, which was playing without Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. The Celtics, who started the day 2½ games ahead of eight-seeded Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference playoff race, have lost seven of their last nine games.
This one snapped an 11-game winning streak against the Wolves, who beat Boston for the first time since Garnett was traded there in 2007.
Jeff Green had a quiet night with just 10 points and seven rebounds, while Jason Terry and Terrence Williams each scored 14 points for Boston, which was a step slow on the second night of a back-toback.
Without Garnett there to throw elbows and spew intensity, the thin Celtics frontcourt was powerless to stand up to Pekovic in the paint. He bulled his way to the bucket for 15 points in the first quarter.
“We had no one that could deal with that big monster they had down there,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
When he wasn’t scoring, he was racking up the fouls on Chris Wilcox and Shavlik Randolph, the only two big men left on the roster.
OTHER GAMES
Pistons 108, Raptors 98 at Toronto: Greg Monroe scored 24 points, Jose Calderon had 19 points and nine assists against his former team, and the Detroit Pistons snapped a three-game losing streak.
Rodney Stuckey scored 18 points, Jonas Jerebko had 10 of his 15 in the fourth quarter, and rookie Khris Middleton added 11 as the Pistons won for just the third time in 19 games.
Rudy Gay scored 34 points, Jonas Valanciunas had 17, and DeMar DeRozan 15 as the Raptors lost for the seventh time in eight games.
Hawks 102, Cavaliers 94 at Atlanta: Devin Harris scored a season-high 25 points and Josh Smith nearly added a triple-double Monday night to improve the Hawks’ chances of securing home- court advantage in the f irst round of the playoffs.
Smith had 18 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists before a sparse crowd in Philips Arena to help the Hawks (42-33) pull within one game of Brooklyn (4231) for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
Rockets 111, Magic 103 at Houston: Omer Asik matched his career high with 22 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, and Houston won without James Harden and Chandler Parsons.
Jeremy Lin had 19 points and 11 assists, and Francisco Garcia had 14 points, f ive assists and three blocks for the Rockets.
Rookie Maurice Harkless scored a career-high 28 points, and Beno Udrih had 17 points and 10 assists for the Magic.
Bucks 131, Bobcats 102 at Milwaukee: Larry Sanders had a career-high 24 points and 13 rebounds as Milwaukee cruised to victory for their highest scoring total in more than four years.
Monta Ellis had 19 points, a career-high 14 assists and six steals to help Milwaukee pull 1½ games behind seventh-place Boston in the Eastern Conference playoff race.