Celtics crater late in home loss to Timberwolves

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on Mar 22, 2026

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BOSTON — A season-worst fourth quarter doomed the Boston Celtics on Sunday in a home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Boston went 5 for 27 in the final period — with two of its makes coming by deep reserves in garbage time — as it fell 102-92 at TD Garden to a Minnesota team that was playing without injured All-Star Anthony Edwards.

Jaylen Brown scored a game-high 29 points but shot 3 for 13 after halftime. Jayson Tatum was largely silent outside of his 13-point third quarter, totaling just three points across the other three frames.

As a team, the Celtics did not make a 3-pointer in the final 15-plus minutes of game time, misfiring on their final nine attempts from beyond the arc.

With New York winning earlier in the night, the second-place Celtics now lead the third-place Knicks by just a half-game in the Eastern Conference standings heading into a daunting matchup with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.

For Minnesota, the win broke a drought that lasted more than two decades. It was the Timberwolves’ first victory in Boston since 2005, when the arena was still known as the FleetCenter. Journeyman guard Bones Hyland was the Wolves’ leading scorer in Edwards’ absence, finishing with 23 points off the bench on 8-of-14 shooting.

Brown paced the Celtics during a low-scoring first quarter, scoring nine points in the first seven minutes while starting 4 of 5 from the field. His teammates combined for just eight first-quarter points and misfired on all six of their 3-point attempts.

Tatum did not score in the opening quarter for the third time in his eight appearances this season — slow offensive starts have been a trend for him since his March 6 comeback — but he did grab four rebounds. And even with their lack of early secondary scoring outside of Brown, the Celtics led 23-14 after one, holding the short-handed Wolves to 6-of-23 shooting.

The Celtics stretched their lead to 15 points early in the second, then let it slip — literally — through their fingers. Boston committed a staggering nine turnovers in the final 10:05 of the first half, and Minnesota turned those into 13 points.

A 12-0 run fueled mostly by trade-deadline pickup Ayo Dosunmu (17 points, eight rebounds, six assists) put the Wolves ahead 35-33. Tatum missed two more field goals during that stretch, including an open layup.

Brown coughed the ball up three times in the second quarter before finishing the half the way he started it. He navigated around a well-set Tatum screen and drew a Julius Randle foul while converting a reverse layup. A minute later, Brown drew contact again after a strong offensive rebound by Neemias Queta and tied the game at the foul line.

A buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Hyland sent Minnesota into the locker room with a 47-44 lead. But after a quarter as ugly as Boston’s, that was an acceptable outcome.

Tatum’s offensive potency finally arrived after halftime.

Held without a point in the first half for the first time since last January — and just the second time since 2021 — the Celtics star scored seven in the first 90 seconds of the third quarter. He totaled 13 points in the period, attacking the basket for three layups and hitting two 3-pointers. Tatum also picked up his first technical foul of the season — for arguing with officials after what he viewed as a missed foul call on Rudy Gobert.

Despite Tatum’s emergence, a pair of Payton Pritchard 3s and 10 more points from Brown, the Celtics entered the fourth quarter with a slim 77-76 lead.

Boston started the fourth with Tatum and Brown on the bench, just as they did during Friday’s win over the Grizzlies, and again received a momentary boost from Derrick White, who scored on two of the Celtics’ first three possessions. His second make was a transition layup sparked by an emphatic Hugo Gonzalez block that put the Celtics ahead 81-78.

Then, White and the rest of the C’s went cold. Boston missed its next 12 shots, and Minnesota ripped off a 16-0 run to break the game open.

On one especially ugly possession, White couldn’t finish a layup, and Luka Garza — a Timberwolves alum who’s played well this season as a reserve Celtics big man — botched three straight putback attempts.

By the time Brown reentered with 7:30 remaining, it was 88-81 Wolves. A minute later, after Naz Reid hooked a 6-footer over Baylor Scheierman for his third basket in as many possessions, the lead was up to 93-81.

That’s where it stood when Tatum checked back in at the 5:21 mark. He ended Boston’s nearly six-minute scoring drought with an and-one layup, but the Wolves’ lead only grew, peaking at 16 points before Joe Mazzulla pulled his starters with 1:45 to go.

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