The Boston Celtics beat the Minnesota Timberwolves last night in Rajon Rondo’s return from suspension. Rondo came back last night to gain 17 points and 11 assists. Boston ended up winning 104-94. (more)

The Minnesota Timberwolves will head to Boston’s TD Garden on Wednesday night to take on the Celtics. The Celts will be back at home this week after their match up against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday. The Timberwolves will be on the road again after their Monday night matchup against the 76ers. (more)

The New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets have agreed to a blockbuster three-team deal that will send Carmelo Anthony to join forces with Amar’e Stoudemire back east. The former Syracuse University star player publicly stated his desire to play for New York before starting his seventh regular season in Denver. The Knicks expect to sign Anthony to a three-year, $65 million extension in the process. As a part of the deal, New York will send Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and a 2014 first-round draft pick to the Nuggets in exchange for Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman.  The Knicks have also reached agreement to ship Anthony Randolph, the expiring contract of Eddy Curry and $3 million to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Corey Brewer. Denver coach George Karl will look to get his team refocused after a season so far packed with rumors and media headlines. “I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad it’s an opportunity to reinvent,” he said. “I think everybody handled it as classy as you could handle it. There’s some sadness to it, there always will be.” The Knicks will hope to have Carmelo in uniform Wednesday night when they host the Milwaukee Bucks. New York Knicks tickets are now available!

Kobe Bryant collected 33 points and six rebounds to lift his Los Angeles Lakers past the Minnesota Timberwolves 99-94 yesterday at the Staples Center. The 1-7 Timberwolves pulled within two late in the contest but could never create a lead over the two-time defending champions. Bryant and company can be grouped with the 1987 and 1997 Lakers as the only teams in franchise history to start the season at 8-0. Pau Gasol came through with 18 points and 10 rebounds for LA. Lamar Odom and Ron Artest produced 15 and 13, respectively. “We won but we didn’t play well, and that bothers me a little bit,” said Artest. “If we have a loss and play well, that’s a different story. I guess it still feels better to get a win, even if it’s something like this. We’re still a good team, even on a night like this.” Kevin Love led the Timberwolves with an impressive 23 points, 24 rebounds and five assists. Minnesota will hope to build from their efforts when they matchup with the Sacramento Kings tonight. “I think this was the best game we’ve played so far, despite the L at the end of the night,” said Love. “We got up to play the world champs and we went down with a fight. We played a lot better than we have played in the last four or five games.” The Lakers will next be challenged on the road against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday.

The Philadelphia 76ers collectively netted 43 second quarter points to coast by the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-97 yesterday at the Wachovia Center. Andre Iguodala led the scoring campaign with 24 points. Lou Williams and Thaddeus Young came off the bench for 16 and 15, respectively. Philadelphia has certainly proved themselves as true competitors with victories over New Jersey, Chicago, New Orleans, Houston and now Minnesota in their last five games. Each win has been produced without veteran leader Allen Iverson, who is currently out tending to his ill daughter.   “I liked the way we played for 48 minutes,” said Sixers coach Eddie Jordan. “We didn’t have any lulls like we have seen in the past. We stayed at a high level.” Philly will look to continue their streak tonight against Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors as the Timberwolves welcome the Charlotte Bobcats to the Target Center.

The Golden State Warriors scored a remarkable 146 points to the Minnesota Timberwolves 105 last light at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA. The game wasn’t too out of reach for Minnesota until Golden State ran up the score in the final minutes of the second quarter to lead 74-55 at the half.  They racked up 22 steals as a team, which marks the most produced in a single game for the franchise since 1989. “This is what we’re capable of doing,” said Warriors PG Monta Ellis. “We got a lot of deflections, got the fast break going. We did a lot of help defense, rebounded the ball and got out and ran.” Six players for Golden State contributed with double digit performances. Stephen Jackson played floor general with 10 points and 15 assists. Kelenna Azbuike led all in scoring with 31, followed by Anthony Randolph and Anthony Morrow with 23 and 20. The Timberwolves at 1-7 so far this season will look more long term in regards to the future success of the organization. “We’ve maintained from the beginning this is going to be a process, this is not something that’s going to turn around in the first 10 games of the regular season,” said coach Kurt Rambis. “We knew we were going to take some lumps. Until we have an idea of a nice starting unit and a set rotation where guys can feel comfortable and when they’re going to play, we’re probably going to continue to play up and down and be inconsistent.”  Minnesota will now look ahead to their matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers this Wednesday while the Warriors travel to Indiana to face the Pacers.

Rajon Rondo took charge as floor general and scored 14 of his 18 points in the third quarter as the Boston Celtics beat out the Minnesota Timberwolves 92-90 yesterday at the Target Center. Rondo and the rest of the starting five all produced double digit numbers for the C’s. Minnesota looked as though they were the dominant team of the night through the first half. Eventually Boston’s veteran leadership overcame the inexperienced and young Timberwolves roster. “We played hard, we played with a lot of energy,” said Wolves forward Oleksiy Pecherov. “We just have to learn how to finish these games. We’ve been playing the last three games with great effort. To lose at the end of the game is kind of hard. It’s what we need to learn about.” Pecherov and former Celtics big man Al Jefferson led Minnesota in scoring with 24 and 18. Kevin Garnett posted a nice stat line against his old squad with 12 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. “I’m so numb when I come in here,” said Garnett. “I sort of put my face on as I say. I get so intense…It’s easy to come in here and focus because I don’t have any of my old teammates here anymore.” After battling through their first true road test the C’s will welcome the Phoenix Suns to the TD Garden this Friday at 7:30 PM. Boston Celtics tickets are available now!

After a summer of repeating that the NBA is the right place for him this upcoming season, Ricky Rubio just recently backed out after the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Spanish team DKV Joventut reached contract agreements for him to play in the U.S. Rubio told Timberwolves president David Kahn earlier this week that he wanted to stay in Spain for another two years, in order to further develop his game for NBA league play.  “It appears now we will have a two-year wait. But if you frame it as he’ll be 20 years old and he’ll have two more years to develop, I can think of a lot worse things to happen to us as a franchise,” said Kahn. “It’s just been a tough summer. From an 18-year-old’s perspective and his family’s perspective, it was very nerve-racking.” Minnesota will now turn to their second choice Johnny Flynn as their starting PG.  Flynn has certainly impressed the T-Wolves during NBA summer league play, winning rookie of the month for July.  Looking ahead the Timberwolves are scheduled to take on the New Jersey Nets at the Target Center October 28th for their first regular season game. Minnesota Timberwolves tickets are available now!

Minnesota Timberwolves recent draft pick Ricky Rubio is still not sure if a deal can be worked out for him to play in the NBA this season.  DKV Joventut Badalona (his professional team in Spain) still has him under contract for two more seasons, but has offered a $6.6 million buyout option.  Under NBA rules teams can conduct a buyout for no more than $500,000.  Timberwolves president David Kahn assures fans that they are doing everything they can to improve the situation.  “I believe we kind of know what the parameters are and I think that we have a chance,” said Kahn. “I wouldn’t even begin to state the percentage toward that chance of this being accomplished this season versus next season or even two seasons. It’s still very problematic.” Rubio is currently training with the Spanish national team, and hopes to join the NBA as soon as possible.  After meeting with the Rubio family in Spain, Kahn insisted that Ricky’s single issue preventing him from joining the Wolves is this buyout.  Jonny Flynn is currently expected to run the show at PG for Minnesota this season.  Their first notable pre-season test is set for Friday, October 16th against the Chicago Bulls. Minnesota Timberwolves regular season tickets are available now!

Less then one month after the Boston Celtics captured their 17th NBA Championship, many teams around the league are already beginning to try and make some adjustments so that they can put themselves in contention for a title run. Many teams have begun to sign their lottery draft picks and several free agents are close to signing multi-year deals with new teams. It is expected that the Golden State Warriors will sign Corey Maggette to a five year deal estimated right around $50 million dollars. Last season, Maggette averaged 22.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game for the struggling Los Angeles Clippers. At 6-foot-6, great speed and a soft perimeter touch, he would fit right into Golden State coach Don Nelson’s run and gun style of play. The Philadelphia 76ers continue to make moves, freeing up salary cap space which many suspect is so that they can make a strong offer to Elton Brand to come and play for them. On Tuesday the 76ers traded away forward Rodney Carney, a future first round draft pick and reserve forward Calvin Booth to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a future second round draft pick and $2.8 million dollars. The Sixers now have another $2 million in salary cap space to add to the $11 million in space available that they hope will land them the post player in Brand that they desperately need to become a contender in the East. First round draft pick O.J. Mayo (third pick overall) signed a multi-year contract with the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. The Grizzlies pulled off an eight player trade the night of the NBA draft to acquire the rights to the third pick and land Mayo. Memphis also announced the signing of Darrell Arthur, the 27th overall selection of this year’s draft. The number one and two picks of this years’ NBA Draft have been in the spotlight in the early action of the NBA’s summer league games. Michael Beasley (2nd pick in the draft) scored 28 points in the first game of the summer season for the Miami Heat but then followed it up with only a 9 point outing in the second game a night later. Derek Rose of the Chicago Bulls (1st pick in the draft) scored 10 points in his NBA summer league debut against Miami and Beasley and then followed it up with 9 points in his second game against the Indiana Pacers. In other league news, the NBA set the new salary cap at $58,680,000 for the 2008-2009 season. This year’s cap went up by more than $3 million dollars over last season’s, which was set at $55.630 million. The minimum team salary for 2008-09 was 75 percent of the cap, or $44.010 million.