Boston’s status as the NBA’s last undefeated club came to an end Monday night in Minnesota.

Regardless of the outcome, many engaged said it was one of those games that you couldn’t help but enjoy as a competitor.

Despite that, it was “one hell of a game,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla remarked following his team’s 114-109 overtime loss.

Boston’s league-leading offense finally met its match against the league-leading defense of the Timberwolves, falling 114-109 in overtime and falling to 5-1 on the season. In a contest with 17 lead changes and 13 ties, the two sides traded jabs throughout the second half.

“I thought it was one hell of a game,” C’s head coach Joe Mazzulla reflected. “It was a lot of fun. It was very competitive. Our opponents are always going to bring the best out of us. I thought we competed at a high level. I thought their defensive toughness outmatched our offensive toughness at times. I thought both teams played a really good game for game [six] of the year.”

After averaging 135 points per game in its previous three games, Boston was dragged back down to earth by a Wolves defense that came into the night as the league’s only club allowing less than 100 points per game (99.6).

“They did a good job of trying to get us out of our sets and speed us up,” Jaylen Brown said of Minnesota’s team defense. “I think that’s what their focus was; they made it tough for us to get to our spots and get to the places that we wanted to go to execute, and we’ve got to fight for that. That was the first team that kind of put that type of pressure on us, and we’ve got to be ready for the next one.”

Despite Minnesota’s pressure, the Celtics had three 20-point scorers, including Jayson Tatum’s 32-point performance (his fourth straight game scoring 30-plus), Brown’s 26-point performance, and Kristaps Porzingis’ 20-point performance.

But the game’s biggest star was on the other side of the ball. Anthony Edwards, 22, of Minnesota, set a season high with 38 points on 15-of-25 shooting from the floor, along with nine rebounds and seven assists. Despite having five fouls for the entire five-minute overtime period, he scored eight points.

“He’s a hooper,” said Brown, who grew up in the same area of Georgia as Edwards. “We already knew that. We knew he was going to come and play tonight. We know that he’s one of the young stars – faces of our league. We had a lot of schemes we tried to throw at him, but he was able to get going. If a guy like that gets going, it’s going to be tough.”

This was the first game of the season in which an opposing star found a way to bury Boston late in the game. Prior to this game, the C’s were 3-0 in games that came down to the wire. However, they eventually experienced some late-game slippage against the T-Wolves, which is difficult to overcome when you already have a target on your back.

That being said, it was a hard-fought game against an up-and-coming squad that had recently logged convincing back-to-back wins against both of last season’s finalists: the Denver Nuggets (110-89) and the Miami Heat (106-90).

“We know that going into a lot of games, especially on the road, guys are going to get up to play against us,” said Tatum. “I think we played hard. We competed.”

Even with the loss, the Celtics are still tied with the 76ers for the best record in the East. And Philadelphia is where they’re headed Wednesday night.