If you ever thought that Von Wafer - the last man on the Boston Celtics' bench - would ever do anything that would help them win a regular season game, you're either related to him or you're a lunatic.
However, that was the story last night as Wafter brought energy off the bench and his 10 points and six rebounds were crucial as the Celts (26-7) stole a game from the Minnesota Timberwolves (9-26), 96-93 at the TD Garden.
Led by rebounding machine Kevin Love (12 points, 24 rebounds - a Garden record), the Timberwolves were in control for most of the contest but some fourth quarter heroics by Paul Pierce (23 points), Ray Allen (20 points) and Glen Davis (17 points) allowed Boston to escape with the win.
Rajon Rondo was back to his old tricks with six points and 16 assists. He actually had the two biggest baskets for the Cs as well: a floater and a jumper in the last few minutes.
Minnesota got 19 points from Michael Beasley, 15 points from Martell Webster off the bench, 14 from Darko Milicic and 13 from Luke Ridnour.
The Timberwolves led 25-17 after one quarter and 47-43 at halftime. Boston inched closer with a decent third quarter (27-26) then won it in the fourth (26-20).
For the game, the Celts shot 45.1% to Minnesota's 41.7%. Thanks to Love's prowess, the Timberwolves had 15 more rebounds (45-30) but it was the same story in the assist department thanks to Rondo (22-16). Boston also had five more blocks (7-2) since Jermaine O'Neal had four (he's still good defensively), five less turnovers (15-10) and 12 more points in the paint (38-26).
Wednesday night is one of the marquee games of the NBA regular season even though I'm sure it won't get much hype. It pits the Western Conference's best team: the San Antonio Spurs against the East's best - Boston - at the TD Garden. It's hard to get excited about a regular season game but these teams only meet once or twice a season and they always seem to be great games.
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