The Celtics, fresh off a remarkably fluent win over Detroit on Thursday night at the Garden, were booked on the worst kind of red-eye schedule to the Twin Cities.

It didn't help that the Wolves had broken a six-game losing streak with a win Wednesday against the 76ers.

``That's going to be a tough game for a lot of reasons,'' Rivers said. ``Number one, we played at 8 (Thursday night). And they're home. And we'll get in at 3 a.m. their time, which will be 4 a.m. here. And then there's a 7 game (last night).

``So that in itself is going to be tough. And it doesn't matter that your guys didn't play a certain amount of minutes. They were on the floor. You know what I mean? And there's no way around that.

``Two, they broke their streak Wednesday, so now they're going to play free again. You look at Minnesota - I don't know if it's six games or seven games they've had leads going into the fourth quarter against very good teams. And then the Kevin Garnett factor. Who knows where that's going to go. I wish I could tell you. I can't.''

The Celtics found out quickly enough.

They escaped the first quarter with a narrow 22-21 lead against a Timberwolves team that, as always, was particularly inspired for a win over the NBA champs.

And beyond the usual opportunity to knock them off, the Wolves had matters of history to consider. Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair were all left over from the trade that brought Garnett to the Celtics.

``This time we're going to get them,'' a smiling Gomes said prior to the game.

Garnett, despite two quick turnovers, was on his game with a team-leading seven points in the first 12 minutes.

Gomes was even more of a force, scoring his seven points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field to go with five boards.

The Celtics bench, so important against the Pistons, was on the floor when Minnesota made its first serious push into the lead. The hosts led 29-22 with nine minutes left in the half when Telfair drove for a bucket.

Tony Allen then fouled Rodney Carney on a 3-point attempt. He hit 2-of-3 for a 31-24 lead.

Fortunately for the Celtics, Minnesota was just as ragged with the ball, and with just more than five minutes left, the Wolves led 33-28.

The Celtics briefly cut that margin, but Jefferson pushed it back to five (35-30) with a hook from the lane. Paul Pierce trimmed it back to three off a drive, but the Celtics weren't going far. They left the floor at halftime on the wrong end of a truly ugly 39-36 score.

The Celtics shot 41 percent in the opening half, but only went 3-of-6 from the free throw line.

Minnesota, meanwhile, shot 27 percent but went into the locker room up with the help of a 14-of-16 clip from the charity stripe.

- mrmurphy@bostonherald.com