Perkins' Hoop Lifts Celtics Over Wolves

[January 26, 2008]  BOSTON (AP) -- Kendrick Perkins scored on a putback with 16.6 seconds left, and Kevin Garnett poked the ball away from Sebastian Telfair as time expired on Friday night to give the Boston Celtics an 87-86 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

In the first regular-season matchup between Garnett and the handful of former Celtics traded to Minnesota for him, Boston struggled to put away the team with the worst record in the NBA. Perkins scored 21, Paul Pierce had 19 points and eight assists and Garnett had 10 points and 16 rebounds despite leaving the game for four minutes because of an abdominal strain.

Telfair scored 18 points, and fellow ex-Celtics Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes had 15 and 13, respectively. Craig Smith, who played at Boston College, had 10 rebounds for the Timberwolves as they missed a chance to extend their season-high two-game winning streak to three.

Instead, Garnett beat his former team, which acquired five players and two draft picks last summer to send him to Boston and help the Celtics turn what had been one of the worst teams in the NBA last year into this year's best.

As good as the Celtics have been with Garnett, that's how bad Minnesota has been without him. Adding Antoine Walker to the five other ex-Celtics, the Timberwolves won just five of their first 39 games to fall to the bottom of the NBA standings.

But the Timberwolves of the past week have been a different team. After blowing a last-minute lead against Northwest Division-leading Denver last Saturday, they put together their first winning streak of the season, beating Golden State and Phoenix, the best team in the West.

Gomes scored a career-high 35 points to beat the Warriors, and Jefferson had a career best 39 points to go with 15 rebounds against the Suns.

On Friday, the new Timberwolves saw the team they left behind.

Despite having virtually the opposite record as the NBA-leading Celtics - 7-34 against 33-7 - the Timberwolves had won two in a row against above-.500 teams and led Boston by six points, 78-72 with four minutes left. They also had the ball and had Garnett in the locker room with an injury.

Garnett got back on the court with 1:51 left, just in time to see Pierce hit a pair of free throws that cut the deficit to 86-83. An offensive rebound and a traveling call against Pierce gave the Timberwolves three chances to extend the lead, but instead Boston cut it to one point on Pierce's fifth-chance putback with 23.2 seconds left.

When Corey Brewer couldn't inbound the ball for Minnesota in time, the Celtics got a chance to take the lead. Ray Allen swept around the lane and missed a layup, but Perkins put it back in to give Boston the 87-86 lead.

Tough defense forced Marko Jaric to call timeout on the ensuing inbounds pass, and when he finally got it in the Timberwolves worked it around before Garnett knocked it away from Telfair at midcourt.

Notes:@ Perkins also had three blocked shots. ... The Celtics turned the ball over on six straight possessions down the stretch.

[Associated Press; By JIMMY GOLEN]

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