The Boston Celtics needed all 48 minutes to put away the upstart Minnesota Timberwolves 96-93 on Monday night. Paul Pierce played through a sprained ankle to score 23 points, and Rajon Rondo racked up 16 assists in his second game back from injury. Kevin Love had 12 points and (ahem) 24 rebounds. Love rebounded 53 percent of the Celtics' misses while in the game, which is absolutely phenomenal.
The Celtics led by one point with Wolves guard Luke Ridnour looking to push Minnesota over the top. Ridnour drove the lane and was called for traveling. Take a look.
Ray Allen blocked the shot anyway, but had the play not been whistled dead, Allen could have been called for the shooting foul, or at the very least the Wolves would have taken the ball in from the sideline with 9.5 seconds on the clock. Ridnour still wasn't convinced he traveled after watching the replay several times.
The standard side overhead angle of the play shows two equally amazing things: how quickly Ridnour separated from Rondo (possibly the best point guard defender in the world) and how quickly Allen made up ground along the baseline.
Look at those old men movin'!
Canis Hoopus attempts to line up the specific not-bad decisions that got the Wolves to where they were with the macro sense of dread. CelticsBlog notes that at halftime Love had more rebounds (15) than Boston, in total (14).
In other action:
Magic 110, Warriors 90: Golden State actually led by nine at halftime. Orlando won the second half by the score 66-37. All eight Magicians who played at least a minute (sorry, Quentin Richardson) scored in double-digits. All eight of those dudes minus Dwight Howard and Brandon Bass hit at least one three.
Hornets 84, 76ers 77: These are two teams with identical problems: great defense, bad offense, few players who can hit shots reliably. The Hornets have Chris Paul, and that's the difference in a slog like this, even though CP3 had just 15 points and five assists. ("Just.") Philadelphia's starting line-up featured Marreese Speights, Jodie Meeks and Andres Nocioni, and I'm not even kidding.
Jazz 102, Pistons 97: Utah nearly lost a home game to a team like the Pistons, which shouldn't happen if the Jazz are as good as they think they are. Raja Not Roger Bell won the game with a big three-pointer inside one minute to go; Tayshaun Prince (who had 26) nor Tracy McGrady (one rebound from a triple-double) could answer in the final seconds.