Timberwolves prepared to show the Celtics plenty of Love

The Minnesota Timberwolves promise to show the Boston Celtics plenty of Love when they square off at TD Garden in Boston tonight….

…But not the warm and fuzzy variety with flowers and candy.  Rather, the brutal elbows and shoulders of the 6′ 10″ rebounding cyborg Kevin Love.

” The Timberwolves are challenging because their strength is our weakness.” lamented Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers on Tuesday, “They are not a good rebounding team, they are an amazing rebounding team. Kevin Love’s one of the best rebounders of our era. I know that’s saying something early on in his career, but he is.”

Nov 28, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love (42) is defended by Los Angeles Clippers forward Lamar Odom (7) and center DeAndre Jordan (6) at the Staples Center. The Clippers defeated the Timberwolves 101-95. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

Love is averaging 19.4 points and 14.6 rebounds in seven games since missing  the first nine recovering from an illness and a broken right hand, so being able to limit him to a season-low 25 minutes during last night’s 105-88 blowout of the Philadelphia 76ers was a welcome occurrence.

Minnesota connected on 53.2 percent of its field goals and made 13 of 25 from  long range in the rout Philadelphia, its third win in four games.

Rajon Rondo will be back on the floor tonight to try to help the Celtics continue their dominance in this series  Wednesday night while the Timberwolves attempt to build off their most lopsided  victory of the season.

Boston (9-8) split two games without Rondo, who served a suspension for  shoving Brooklyn’s Kris Humphries into the stands in retaliation for a hard foul  on Kevin Garnett during a 95-83 loss last Wednesday.

The Celtics are mired in a flat streak, having lost 4 of 7 games and Rondo can’t wait to get back to work to reverse that trend.

“We’ve got to get this show on the road. We’ve got to have a great December.  I mean, I want to get better. I want to run off about eight or nine games  straight.” said Rondo upon his return to practice from the two game suspension.

“We’ve got to play together for 48 minutes.’ he continued, “We’ve been playing together well for 20 minute here, maybe a quarter or a half there. But even when I was out, the team played great in short periods of spans, but we’ve got to put it together for 48 minutes and it’s going to take an entire-team effort.”

Rondo, the NBA leader with 12.9 assists per game, is thrilled to be back.

“It was difficult,” Rondo said about having to stay away from the team during his suspension. “I love being  around the guys. I love coming into practice and being around the team and  playing, but I had to miss that for a couple of days.”