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Garnett to return to Minnesota in street clothes

Feb 8, 2008 - 1:32 PM Boston (37-9) at Minnesota (10-37) 8:00 pm EST

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) - Kevin Garnett is set to return to the city in which he spent the first 12 seasons of his career. But he likely won't move far from the bench.

Garnett is expected to miss his sixth straight game with an abdominal strain when the Boston Celtics visit the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday.

The perennial All-Star holds multiple franchise records in Minnesota and scored over 19,000 points while leading the the team as far as the 2004 Western Conference finals. But poor finishes in each of the last three seasons prompted the Timberwolves to trade Garnett over the summer for a package of five players and two draft picks.

The acquisition of Garnett and fellow multiple All-Star participant Ray Allen has the Celtics sitting on top of the Eastern Conference with the best record in the NBA. Garnett is averaging 19.2 points and 9.9 rebounds and shooting a career-high 55 percent in 41 games with Boston and was the leading vote-getter in the All-Star balloting.

He first suffered the injury in the fourth quarter during a home game against the visiting Timberwolves on January 25. Garnett left the court for five minutes before returning and making a steal on the final possession to seal Boston's 87-86 win. He has not played since, and the Celtics are 3-2 in his absence.

Leon Powe, who has been getting most of the minutes at Garnett's vacated power forward position, led the team with 10 rebounds in Wednesday's 11-100 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Rajon Rondo scored a career-high 24 points and dished out eight assists in the win despite taking a hard shot early that left him with a bloody nose.

Minnesota owns the worst record in the Western Conference but has shown improvement of late, winning five of its last eight games.

Al Jefferson, who was the key piece coming back to the Timberwolves in the Garnett trade, is averaging 21.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. He put up 33 and 16 in Monday's 92-86 loss to the Houston Rockets.

Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green are three other former Celtics who should see time for Minnesota on Friday. Telfair dished out 12 assists in Monday's loss and has been a key distributer at the point for Minnesota this season.

Boston is 14-0 this season against Western Conference teams.