"I don't know what to expect," Rajon Rondo said. "He already plays with a lot of intensity so I'm sure there will be a lot of trash talking, but that's the way he is. He's going to do that regardless. You always want to play going back to a team that you came from."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers isn't worried that Garnett will work him into too much of a lather.

"I think it's nice that he's been there once," Rivers said. "He didn't play, but he's been there. Honestly, we have an 8 o'clock game (last night), we have a three-hour flight going to Minnesota, and I want him to have energy (tonight) because energy will be an issue."

The Timberwolves sold out last season's game on Feb. 8 against the Celtics because they announced that they would recognize Garnett at center court for his 12 seasons with the team. When he found out he couldn't play, Garnett didn't want to distract his teammates by having the Timberwolves honor him.

"We basically had to talk him into it," Rivers said. "His reasons were valid, but he just had to understand that that place was sold out for one reason. It wasn't me."

The Timberwolves honored Garnett, and Leon Powe put back a Ray Allen miss at the buzzer to give the Celtics an 88-86 win, so things turned out well for Boston.

The Timberwolves also gave the Celtics fits in their only trip to Boston last season before falling, 87-86, on Jan. 25. Garnett stole the ball from ex-Celtic Sebastian Telfair as the final horn sounded. Garnett had 10 points and 16 rebounds in that game before sitting out Boston's next nine games with his abdominal strain.

The Timberwolves had hoped to improve upon last year's 22-60 record, but they're off to another slow start (2-8). They did snap an eight-game losing streak Wednesday night, however, with a 102-96 home win over Philadelphia before only 10,111 fans.

Running all Pistons

The Pistons are running more since they traded Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson, and Rasheed Wallace has benefited the most. When Iverson runs, he often passes it back out to Wallace for open 3-pointers.

"You have load to the ball with Allen coming up the floor," Rivers said, "and to do that, you have to load off Rasheed because he's usually the trail big and Allen is finding him for 3s. That's a problem. That's where they've gotten better."

Although he's 33, Iverson doesn't appear to have lost a step yet.

"He's a freak of nature," Rivers said, "really when you think about the way he still plays. At his size, it's amazing how long he's gone and done it. I remember his rookie year, people were saying there's no way he'll be able to play this fast all year. Now it's whatever years later, and we're still talking about it. He really is an amazing guy, and from his own admission, I don't think he practices a lot, so I don't know where he gets the endurance."

Waiting game continues

When Pistons coach Michael Curry arrived at his hotel in Boston at 2:30 a.m. yesterday, the scroll across the bottom of his TV screen read that Charlotte was close to signing Antonio McDyess.

"I didn't sleep good," Curry said. "I figure they offered him a heck of a package."

The Pistons sent McDyess to Denver in the Iverson trade, but Denver bought him out of his contract, and he's a free agent. McDyess can sign with anyone, but he'll have to wait until Dec. 7 to re-sign with the Pistons.

"The longer it goes, I think the better chance we have," Curry said.

The Celtics have contacted McDyess' agent. Rivers said he hadn't heard anything from Danny Ainge about McDyess.

"Which is probably not good," Rivers said.

Development time for Giddens

Now that he's been sent to the NBDL, J.R. Giddens will get a chance to play in the Utah Flash's only preseason game tomorrow at Idaho and their regular-season opener a week from today at Austin.

But fellow rookie Bill Walker remains on the Celtics bench and will have to improve by working with Celtics assistant coach Kevin Eastman. Walker has played only six minutes over two games this season, and he hasn't had much of an opportunity to develop in practice because the Celtics have been too busy playing games to practice much.

"I'm really focused on the nine, 10 guys in the rotation more than the guys who are not," Rivers said.

Second-year guard Gabe Pruitt also works Eastman.