BOSTONThe final score highlighted 104 points, an impressive performance with 52.6 percent field goal shooting.
Beyond the offensive stats against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, the Boston Celtics prided themselves on an even more noteworthy effort on the boards.
We were pretty good, said Doc Rivers after the Celtics 104-94 win. Thats a hard team to rebound against, and we held our own.
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The Celtics ranked last in the NBA with 37.8 rebounds per game while allowing 42.0. The Timberwolves, on the other hand, held the fifth spot with 45.2 boards, led by Kevin Love with 14.4 per game.
By the end of the game, the Celtics had outrebounded the Timberwolves, 45-41. Kevin Garnett drove the team with 10 boards while power forwards Brandon Bass and Jared Sullinger contributed eight and seven, respectively.
We have to be that way every night, said Paul Pierce. Were challenged rebound-wise and a majority of these games we havent rebounded well. So thats mainly what the last couple days of practice have been is to put bodies on people, go after rebounds, box out, those little things that are going to help us win games.
The Celtics will look to continue improving their rebounding efforts in back-to-back games against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday and Saturday. The Celtics are 0-1 against the Sixers this season (0-2 in preseason action) and were outrebounded 38-31 in their first meeting on November 9. 6-7 Evan Turner led all players with 11 boards, one more than Garnett.
Id like to beat them both times but theyre playing well against us and were going to have to deal with that., said Rivers. They must have great confidence against us, so those are going to be hard games. I do like it, especially in this stretch. Coming into it I think were starting to play a little bit better. Weve struggled playing Philly so I love all that stuff because thats good, the way I look at it in my demented way. I think those are all good things.I think its a good challenge for us, so itll be a lot of fun.