Wolves record: 16-30

Box Score

 

Kevin McHale, Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair all are here at the new Boston Garden for today’s early game against the NBA champion Celtics, but Kevin Garnett is not.

The Timberwolves’ former franchise player reportedly is flat on his back at home in bed, out for today’s game because of the flu.

“For Kevin not to play any game is unusual,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. ” For him not to play this game means he’s really sick.”

 

This is the second time in four meetings since the July 31, 2007 trade that sent him to Boston that Garnett has missed a game against his former team.

With all-star forward Kevin Garnett sidelined by the flu, the Boston Celtics were still too much for his former Timberwolves team today, building a 21-point third-quarter lead and holding on for a 109-101 win.

Paul Pierce scored 36 points and Ray Allen added 22 for the Celtics, who ran their winning streak to 11 games and improved to an NBA-best 40-9.

Al Jefferson had a monster game with 34 points and 11 rebounds for Minnesota (16-30), which pulled to within five on his slam dunk with 5:20 remaining but never got any closer.

 

Al Jefferson, the centerpiece of the trade that brought Garnett to Boston, scored 34 points for the Timberwolves, who lost their third in a row since winning 10 of 12. It’s the 19th time he has scored at least 30 points in his career, the sixth since Dec. 20 and the first time he has done it in back-to-back games.

“It was to our advantage to have one less long guy playing in the paint and blocking shots,” Jefferson said. “To come in here and do what I did today against a team like that – even with KG out, it’s still a great defensive team – it means a lot.”

Randy Foye had 21 points and nine assists, and Jefferson also had 11 rebounds – the 26th double-double of the season for a player who was a surprise exclusion from this month’s All-Star game in Phoenix.