Star Tribune AUBURN HILLS, MICH. - With 775 NBA appearances, 29,583 regular-season minutes and 275 consecutive starts on his resume, it shouldn't qualify as news when Kevin Garnett actually plays a game for the Timberwolves. Except this week. After sitting in the locker room for the Wolves' first two preseason contests, Garnett finally participated in the 91-80 loss to the Detroit Pistons Sunday night at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The outcome wasn't good -- the Wolves are 0-3 now and wrap up their trip tonight at Chicago -- but coach Dwane Casey's strategy to ease the workload on his franchise player seems to be working. In other words, Garnett approves. "I appreciate the fact that someone actually cares about my body, and is man enough to tell me ... 'Sit [yourself] down. You're hurting,' " Garnett said after scoring 11 points with seven rebounds in a modest 21 minutes. "He's giving me another outlook on it and saying, 'There's practice and times that are not so heavy-duty.' It's good for somebody to give me a different observation. Not to say that I haven't had that, but one that I trust in and actually respect." A moment later, Garnett tried to gloss over how much his sore right knee really hurts but said: "He's just preserving me, man, I'm about to be 30 [next May] with a lot of miles on me." Casey got his first taste of coaching Garnett in a game, something the guy on the other bench last night, Flip Saunders, enjoyed for 10 seasons. A funny moment: Garnett scored at the Pistons' end and, on instinct, held out his fist for Saunders to tap it. Then he quickly pulled it back. "With Kevin in the game, everything settles into place," Casey said. "Everybody goes into their pecking order. That's one reason why our turnovers were way down, against a very good defensive team. Getting the ball in the post, where he's the quarterback, and [not] getting the ball to people when they're not ready to handle it." Against their former coach and a veteran team whose defense got it to consecutive NBA Finals, the Wolves shot 37 percent but had 20 assists to eight turnovers. Two came during a 14-2 run across the third and fourth quarters that left Detroit in control. Garnett did not limp but seemed a little sluggish. "He was a little bit out of sync, a little bit out of condition," Casey said. "He's so intense, he probably got a little winded a little quicker than normal." Source
