MINNEAPOLIS — Ever since Minnesota traded him to Boston six years ago, Kevin Garnett has always come in and bullied his old team to devastating effect.
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Garnett wasn’t in the building to save the Celtics on Monday night. Without him roaming the paint, Nikola Pekovic flattened the reeling Celtics.
Pekovic bruised and battered the overmatched Boston front line for 29 points to lead the Timberwolves to a 110-100 victory.
“We had no one that could deal with that big monster they had down there,” Celtics Coach Doc Rivers said.
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 Garnett. The Celtics, who are just 1 1/2 games ahead of eighth-place Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference playoff race, have lost 7 of 9.
This loss 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.
“Big emphasis, get your mind right, whatever you have to do individually to do that, that’s what we need, because you’re going to have to be so locked in,” Celtics veteran Jason Terry said after circling the locker room to try to boost his teammates’ spirits.
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. And 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 Celtics roster.
Wilcox didn’t last five minutes before picking up his second foul and Randolph had three by early in the second quarter.
“They just didn’t have anybody,” Adelman said. “With all their guys out, especially when Wilcox got in foul trouble right away, we did a nice job of finding him, and he did a great job of being active.”
Pierce did not make the trip because of personal reasons.
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