Will Marbury -- the enigmatic and self-absorbed point guard whose career has sputtered since he forced a trade from Minnesota in March 1999 -- provide the Celtics the final piece needed to successfully defend their NBA title?

Timberwolves coach Kevin McHale gave his former teammate and good buddy Danny Ainge his opinion before Ainge signed Marbury to a $1.2 million contract for the rest of the season after Marbury finally secured his release this week from the New York Knicks. Marbury played his first game for Boston on Friday night.

"I talked to Danny quite a bit about a lot of stuff," McHale said. "We talked about a lot of stuff. That's between Danny and myself."

McHale is the former perennial All-Interview pick when he played for the Celtics who now still never usually is at a loss for words as the Wolves' coach. But he picks his words carefully and chooses very few whenever the subject shifts to Marbury, for whom he traded 13 years ago with the intention that Marbury and Garnett would play their entire careers together.

"Well, I wish 'em well," he said shortly when asked how he thought the reunion might work now.

--Friday's lopsided loss afforded Kevin McHale a chance to get his first game look at new Timberwolf Shelden Williams and to play Bobby Brown for an extended stretch.

Williams made his first appearance since last week's trade with Sacramento in the fourth quarter, when the Wolves trailed by as many as 25 points. He had three points and three rebounds in eight minutes.

Brown played 17 consecutive minutes in the third and fourth quarters and scored 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting.

"I think we have 17 games in March, practice time just becomes so sparse," McHale said about trying to integrate new players into his lineup. "That's the tough thing about this time of year. I thought Bobby played well. Bobby kept competing. We have to figure out how to get Bobby incorporated in."

QUOTE TO NOTE: "We've got a lot of time left. We've got to try and continue to give it all we've got. And (Friday night) we didn't, and we can't play like that. We've got to cherish this time of being on an NBA floor and (Friday night) we let it come and go." -- Wolves guard Sebastian Telfair, on the team's remaining 24 games.