Reaction from the "Greatest City in the World" after last night's clubbing by the Wolves.

Five rows back, around midcourt, a fan raised a sign that read: ''Blount for MVP." Nobody at the Target Center found the message ridiculous, not after what Mark Blount showed his new hometown crowd.

He was engaged in every play, passionate, aggressive. He was the player Celtics executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge thought he signed in the summer of 2004 to what then seemed a reasonable six-year, $38 million contract.

Then, there was Marcus Banks.

It seemed Banks had been waiting for a moment like this since long before the trade, perhaps since the day last fall when Ainge decided not to exercise his fourth-year option, or perhaps even back to summer 2004, when he was dealt to the Lakers, then brought back when the deal was restructured.

Whatever the case, Banks had a lot to prove and he used all of his 21 minutes on the court to do it. He slashed to the basket for 3-point plays. He hit 3-pointers. He found teammates new and old for big baskets, helping the Timberwolves stretch a 2-point lead at the end of the first quarter to a 61-42 halftime advantage.

[snip]

When it was suggested that Minnesota might have considered him a throw-in player in the deal, Banks said, "I'm pretty sure they knew what they were doing when they got me.

"I really wanted to show them what I can do. Me and [Delonte] West and [Orien] Greene are pretty good friends, but my game is totally different from theirs. Basically, I got the best of them tonight."

Summarizing, then:

Emotion aside, it was clear that, for now in the post-trade aftermath, the Wolves� increased athleticism is a better fit than the Celtics� improved complement to Paul Pierce and additional playing time for their young insiders.

In short, Marcus Banks, Ricky Davis, Mark Blount and Justin Reed scored a transactional knockout over Wally Szczerbiak and Michael Olowokandi.

In his first game with Minnesota, Banks scored 20 points in 21 minutes against the team he said didn�t give him a fair chance. He shook hands with Rivers when it was over, then offered this punctuation at he shook hands with broadcasters and reporters at the press table: �That�s right. That�s right.�

[snip]

�I wish we had competed a little more,� [Celtics' Coach Doc] Rivers said. �I think if we would have competed it would have been a different game. But I can tell you that their performance didn�t sway me at all with the trade. I think the trade was a tremendous trade for us, and hopefully, a good trade for them. You know, one thing about Mark and all of them: I hope they do well. I just didn�t want them to do well against us.�

Added [Paul] Pierce, �It doesn�t change my mind. You don�t have any doubts. It�s too late to look back. We caught a team on an emotional high on a back-to-back and, no excuses, but they did what they had to do.�

Hopefully, this performance was more than a one night show up of their former team. Because, if it is more than that, it could be the thing that saves this team from ruin. After countless transactions and decisions gone bad, it'd be nice if we performed a heist on someone. No one better to do it against than the C's [because the Lakers don't have anyone].