The Timberwolves made the announcement on Sunday morning. They host the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night. The freebies courtesy of the 15-time All-Star power forward will be available on the team’s website on Monday morning. The first 500 fans to claim them will get a pair of seats.

Garnett said in a statement distributed by the team that the response and support he’s received since the Wolves reacquired him in a trade ”has been nothing short of amazing” and ”unbelievable.”

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He still wants to bring a championship to the Timberwolves. That may not happen as a player for the 38-year-old. But maybe it will as an owner.

Garnett was re-introduced on Tuesday, four days after the Timberwolves acquired him in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets. Garnett says he’s in this for the long haul and hopes to one day own the team that he put on the map.

Garnett spent his first 12 seasons in Minnesota before being traded to Boston in 2007.

He says finishing his playing career where it all began feels like a fairy tale.

Garnett will make his Wolves debut when he starts on Wednesday night against Washington.

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But when he’s open, his teammates are confident he can score.

“He seems to always be in the right spots, available,” Pierce said after Bass scored 20 points to lead the Celtics to a 107-96 win Sunday night. “That’s going to be huge for us if he continues to play well going into the playoffs, and the great thing about it is he’s doing it all off of the hustle plays.”

In the eight games Garnett missed with an inflamed left ankle, Bass averaged 12.3 points, raising his season average to 8.3. On Sunday, he shot 9 of 12 and added six rebounds.

“He’s just efficient,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “Overall, I think he’s playing terrific. I think he’s in a wonderful place right now.”

Garnett had 12 points and six rebounds in 24 minutes. Pierce finished with 15 points in 30 minutes after missing Friday night’s 97-91 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers with a sore left ankle.

“Things flow a lot smoother when Kevin and Paul are out there because everything’s being run through them and everybody else is just getting what they get from them,” Bass said. “So it’s a lot better when they’re out (on the court). It doesn’t matter if I get a play called. The ball will find me and, hopefully, I just make the shot.”

Bass missed his season high by just two points and led the Celtics with eight points in the third quarter, when they hit 75 percent of their shots, outscored Washington 31-19 and stretched a 56-52 halftime lead to 87-71.

They’re still missing Rajon Rondo and Jared Sullinger, both sidelined for the season, but led by at least 10 points the rest of the way to get just their fourth win in 12 games.

John Wall led Washington with 16 points but never got to the foul line as Boston outscored Washington 17-8 on free throws. A.J. Price had 15 points and Trevor Ariza added 14.

“We play a team like this and when you’re not playing great defensively you have got to be able to make shots,” Wall said, “and we had a tough night.”

The Wizards hit just 44.5 percent of their shots. But in the second half they connected on only 41.5 percent, while the Celtics made 64.5 percent.

“It doesn’t matter what lineup (we use) or who’s on the floor as long as we’re playing the right way,” Garnett said. “That’s all my concern is, just making sure that we’re sharing the ball, playing as a team, giving up for each other, playing defensively.”

The win ended a four-game stretch against weak teams in which the Celtics lost to Minnesota, beat Detroit, lost to Cleveland and beat Washington. With five games left and the Celtics trying to move up from seventh place in the Eastern Conference, the schedule gets tougher with a home game Wednesday night against the Brooklyn Nets before a road game Friday against the Miami Heat.

Washington fell to 7-31 on the road but is 23-20 overall since Wall returned from a shoulder injury.

“Against a team like this that’s playing for something, who has a seed in the playoffs, they’re going to keep competing,” Wall said. “And they got everybody back tonight and they were clicking right away.”

A dunk by Nene with 10:24 left in the third quarter had cut the Celtics’ lead to 58-57, but they went on a 29-14 surge the rest of the period.

The Celtics began the spurt with a 14-1 run, starting with a layup by Avery Bradley. Pierce hit another layup and Bradley followed with a 16-footer. Martell Webster sank a free throw for the Wizards after Garnett was called for a technical foul with 7:57 left in the quarter. But Emeka Okafor then missed two free throws for Washington.

Boston scored the next eight points on a 14-foot jumper by Bass, two free throws by Shavlik Randolph, an 18-footer by Jason Terry and a dunk by Bass.

Ariza then scored Washington’s first field goal in nearly six minutes when Randolph was called for goaltending with 4:39 left in the period, cutting Boston’s lead to 72-60.

“We had that stretch in the third quarter where we struggled offensively and they were clicking offensively,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said, “and that was the difference.”

Game notes

Washington forward Trevor Booker left the game with a bruised tailbone with 5:42 left in the first half and didn’t return. … Chris Wilcox had 13 points for Boston, one below his season high. … The Celtics swept the three-game season series. … Jordan Crawford had six points in 16 minutes in his first game against the Wizards since being traded on Feb. 21. He had been upset with his diminished playing time in Washington.

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Instead, New Orleans’ first overall draft choice sent the Boston Celtics out of the Big Easy with the sick feeling that accompanies a lost lead in the dying seconds.

Davis outreached Kevin Garnett and Jeff Green for a last-second tip-in, and the Hornets snapped a four-game skid with an 87-86 victory over the Celtics on Wednesday night.

“His first game-winner comes on night when he’s sick and puking and doesn’t feel his best,” Hornets coach Monty Williams said. “So kudos to him.”

Davis had missed the morning shootaround with an upset stomach. He was listed as a game-time decision and wound up with nine points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots in 28 minutes.

Ryan Anderson scored 21 points and Eric Gordon 18 for the Hornets. Gordon’s floater to win it in the waning seconds missed, but Davis followed up for the winner.

“I was really tired, but I knew my team needed me, so I was trying to fight through it,” Davis said. “I’m glad I did. It was a big win for us.”

Paul Pierce scored 11 of his 28 points in the last six minutes to nearly lead Boston back from a nine-point deficit, but missed a jumper with 16 seconds left that could have put the Celtics up by three.

Garnett, returning from a two game absence caused by a left thigh injury and the flu, scored 20 points to go with six rebounds, but took the blame after Boston’s second-straight loss for not picking Davis up in time.

“It was my block-out. I was trying to help Avery (Bradley)” defend Gordon’s drive, Garnett said. “That’s just when you’re trying to help a teammate and you’re reacting. … I’m acting off impulse as a big man to try to block shots and protect the basket and (Davis) took advantage.”

Davis said he was unaware of who stood in his way for the winning tip.

“I was just following like I was supposed to,” Davis said. “I just saw the ball. I wasn’t looking at nobody else.”

The Celtics got the ball back one last time with 0.3 on the clock, and Pierce inbounded to Garnett, who could not get off a turnaround jumper before the horn.

The loss dropped Boston into seventh in the Eastern Conference, 3½ games behind Brooklyn for the fourth seed, which carries with it home advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Nets beat Dallas, while fifth-place Atlanta beat Milwaukee to pull 1½ games ahead of the Celtics.

Boston coach Doc Rivers said the Celtics got what they deserved, adding that he could see it coming late in the second quarter when Boston “went from being a solid, good-looking team to show time.”

“We started dancing around, stopped defending. You could see our guys laughing and joking,” Rivers said. “We don’t learn because we have done this three or four times this year.”

Green, coming off a career-high 43 points in Boston’s loss to Miami on Monday night, scored 13 points, all in the first half.

Boston had been in control much of the game and led by as many as 13 after Pierce’s 3 made it 60-47 early in the third quarter.

Then Boston slumped offensively, scoring only 12 in the period, and New Orleans whittled away.

The Hornets went on a 9-2 run that included dunks by Robin Lopez and Al-Farouq Aminu, and tied the game at 65 on Anderson’s free throws late in period.

The Hornets then surged into the lead early in the fourth quarter when Brian Roberts hit a driving layup and 3. Anderson later added six straight points to put New Orleans ahead 78-69.

The momentum changed once more when Pierce worked his way inside for a layup and Garnett followed a reverse layup, igniting a 10-0 run that included four more free throws from Pierce.

After Anderson restored New Orleans’ lead with a 3, Pierce tied it with a driving two-handed dunk and followed that with a 3 to put Boston up 84-81 with 2:34 left.

That gave Pierce 11 of 15 Boston points in a span of about three-and-a-half minutes, but he finished the game with a couple of missed mid-range jumpers, giving New Orleans just enough of a window to pull out the upset.

Boston led by as many as 12 in the opening half, taking a 50-38 lead on Garnett’s layup, and the Celtics led 55-45 at halftime.

Game notes
While Austin Rivers’ broken right hand prevented him from playing against the team his father coaches, the younger Rivers said he was able to take his father out for dinner at one of celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse’s New Orleans restaurants on Tuesday. “That’s the first time I’ve ever paid for my dad,” Austin Rivers said. “The bill came and I was ready to get up. … He looked at me like, `It’s your turn now.’ It feels good. You work hard. Finally you take care of somebody that has taken care of your whole life.” … The Hornets won the teams’ only other matchup this season, 97-78 in Boston on Jan. 16. … Boston fell to 12-21 on the road and wraps up its three-game road trip with games on Friday at Dallas and Saturday at Memphis.

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In an interview with ESPN Radio on Friday from All-Star festivities in Houston, the 36-year-old Garnett said some are reading too much into his words after declaring with certainty on Wednesday that this would be his final All-Star appearance.

“I did say that, didn’t I?” joked Garnett. “I’m just being honest. To think that, first off, not to take this for granted and I’m more than honored and flattered. But to think that two years left, who knows what the future’s going to hold for me. I can’t say that I’m going to be an All-Star next year at 37-38 years old. That’s ludicrous.

“I’m learning this new journalism these days, they don’t really put out the whole question, they just ask the parts at which they want. So I’ll explain it. The question kinda came off as whether next year and [Garnett] making the All-Star [game], I was like, ‘Woah, woah, woah. This is probably my last,’ then went into that way and spoke on it. But yeah, I don’t anticipate — I never said that I wasn’t going to anticipate playing like an All-Star next year, I didn’t say that. But to sit up here with all those young guys and up-and-coming talent, I can’t just that. I’m not that brash, that egotistical of a guy say nothing like that. I’m more than honored to be here, it’s not by coincidence, I’m working hard like the next man. But to sit up there and say that next year [he’d be an All-Star], I would never disrespect the game like that.”

Garnett inked a three-year, $36 million deal this offseason; he’ll turn 39 before it ends. One thing he made clear: He doesn’t have any plans to play beyond this current contract.

“I hope I’m not playing at 40,” said Garnett. “I don’t know. Forty, to all you guys that are 40, excuse me before I say this, and ladies who are 40, but I don’t want to play until I’m 40. I love to hoop, by the end I want to be like — when I’m 40 I want to be in the YMCA somewhere, busting a guy like you up, talking trash to you, killing your ego. Shooting the hook shot left and right, something I never do, and enjoying it. I put my time into the game, I actually enjoy playing with the lights or without the lights, but I feel like these times in which I’m going, the game is hard, it’s very difficult to go out here and play these minutes and put in — I prepare the best way I can every night, but it’s challenging, man. It’s very challenging.”

Informed that outsiders don’t notice much slippage in his game — and the stats certainly don’t reflect anything of the such — Garnett said he still holds himself to insanely hard standards.

“As long as I’m going to play this game, I’m going to have a certain level that I’m going to demand of myself. And if I can’t get to that level then I’m going to have a problem,” said Garnett. “And it’s going to eat me up, and internally it’s going to mess with me. And I don’t go at things 20 percent or 30, it’s either 0 or 100 percent. If I can’t keep a certain level, then it’s honestly it’s going to bother me. And I don’t want that. I don’t want to be in a situation where I look depleted — hell, I look depleted some nights, and it’s like, ‘What are you doing out here?’ However y’all see me, that’s how you see me; but how I see myself, is in another realm. I expect a lot out of myself.”

Garnett reaffirmed his desire to retire a Celtic.

“[Celtics president of basketball operations] Danny [Ainge], since Day 1, even when Ray was here, the first day we got there he always told us he would do whatever he had to do to make the team better, he wouldn’t put guys above the team,” said Garnett. “That was the foundation and we all understood that, never had a problem with it. I’ve always told him where I was, as far as being a Celtic. My expectations were not to come back to be traded. We both understand that, but this is a business and you have to understand that, I do.

“It’s my preference, I will retire a Celtic and be buried in green and that’s where it stands. As far as the organization, where they feel they want to go, their visions for the future, I can’t speak on that. You have to ask them that. For right now, this is what it is, if it changes, I’ll have to deal with that.”

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Spoelstra hinted two weeks ago that he would remain loyal to the Heat regarding any decisions he had to make in his first assignment as an All-Star coach.

Bosh will replace injured guard Rajon Rondo, who is recovering from season-ending knee surgery

All-Star starters are chosen through fan voting.

Bosh will start alongside Heat teammates Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, with Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnett.

There was a possibility that Spoelstra would have taken a conventional approach by replacing Rondo with another guard, with Kyrie Irving being a popular alternative.

But Spoelstra announced his decision to the Heat’s team-run website Friday about an hour before he was set to meet with reporters for the scheduled All-Star media availability for players and coaches.

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2013 NBA All-Star Starters
Eastern Conference
Player Votes
LeBron James, MIA 1,583,646
Carmelo Anthony, NYK 1,460,950
Dwyane Wade, MIA 1,052,310
Rajon Rondo, BOS 924,180
Kevin Garnett, BOS 553,222
Western Conference
Player Votes
Kobe Bryant, LAL 1,591,437
Kevin Durant, OKC 1,504,047
Chris Paul, LAC 929,155
Dwight Howard, LAL 922,070
Blake Griffin, LAC 863,832

Lakers teammate Dwight Howard and the Clippers’ Chris Paul and Blake Griffin will join Bryant in the Western Conference lineup for the Feb. 17 game in Houston. Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, the MVP of last year’s game, rounds out the five.

Kevin Garnett held off Chris Bosh in fan balloting, giving the East two Boston Celtics and two Miami Heat players. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade will represent the defending champions and receive passes from Rajon Rondo. New York’s Carmelo Anthony is the other starter.

Bryant finished with 1,591,437 votes, edging James by about 7,800 to finish as the leading vote-getter and break a tie with Shaquille O’Neal, Jerry West and Karl Malone for the most consecutive starting nods.

The NBA’s leading scorer is a four-time MVP of the All-Star Game and last year became its career scoring leader.

Garnett beat Bosh, who took to Twitter to stump for votes in the final days of balloting, by about 25,000 votes. He tied Bryant and O’Neal for second all time with his 15th selection behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was selected to 19 games.

It’s the second straight year that Los Angeles teams will make up four players. Last year it was Bryant, Paul, Griffin and Andrew Bynum, who was dealt to Philadelphia in part of the deal that sent Howard from Orlando to the Lakers.

The ballot changed this season, eliminating the center position. Fans were required to vote for three frontcourt players and two guards.

They picked an interesting mix in the East. Anthony and Garnett exchanged words during a game on Jan. 7, and Anthony was suspended one game by the NBA when he tried to confront Garnett afterward in the tunnel area at Madison Square Garden and by the team bus.

Rondo was injured in the playoffs two years ago after getting tangled up with Wade and landing awkwardly on his arm, part of what’s become a tense rivalry between the Celtics and Heat.

Reserves will be announced next Thursday. Coaches will vote for seven players in their conferences: two guards, three frontcourt players and two players regardless of position. They can’t vote for a player on their own team.

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Carlos Boozer had 19 points and 20 rebounds, and Joakim Noah added 14 points and 13 boards as the Bulls won their 14th straight road game on a Friday. They haven’t lost since April 2011.

Rajon Rondo scored a season-high 30 points for Boston before fouling out with 1:16 to play in overtime.

Kevin Garnett had 16 points and Paul Pierce passed former Celtics star Robert Parish for 22nd on the NBA’s career scoring list by chipping in 13 points. Pierce has 23,342 points and Parish 23,334.

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The Pacers (22-14) have won 12 of 15 and have swept the other two Eastern Conference division leaders — Miami and the Knicks — this week.

New York (23-12) was led by J.R. Smith with 25 points and Tyson Chandler had 12 points and 15 rebounds, but they clearly missed Anthony’s presence. The NBA’s second-leading scorer was banned by the league for Monday’s postgame confrontation with Boston’s Kevin Garnett.

Without Anthony, one of the league’s highest-scoring and best shooting teams, hardly resembled itself. New York finished with a season-low point total, nine fewer than its previous low, and shot just 34.8 percent from the field and 20 percent from 3-point range.

But Smith kept the Knicks close for three quarters.

After falling behind 49-38 early in the third quarter, Smith scored eight points during a 13-3 run that got the Knicks to 52-51. And he closed the quarter by scoring the last four points to give the Knicks a 60-58 lead.

That’s when George poured it on.

He drove in for a layup, then stole the ball and drove in for a dunk to tie the score at 62. After Gerald Green’s 3-pointer broke the tie and Ian Mahinmi hit a 20-foot jumper, George came up with another steal and layup. Mahinmi finished the run with a dunk that gave Indiana a 71-62 lead with just under 5 minutes to play.

The Pacers never trailed again, and the Knicks never seriously challenged again.

Indiana won despite playing without the still injured Danny Granger, losing Roy Hibbert twice with a back injury and with George Hill playing with bronchitis.

New York lost Marcus Camby in the second half after he re-injured his left foot, and Amare Stoudemire played 21 minutes, 31 seconds after doctors told coach Mike Woodson to limit his playing time. Stoudemire is trying to work his way back from surgery on his left knee.

But it was a game that was definitely played at the Pacers tempo.

After New York jumped to an 11-4 lead in the first 5 1/2 minutes, the Knicks managed only three points the rest of the quarter. Indiana led 16-14 after one.

Things weren’t much better the second quarter. After New York closed to 24-23 with 6:27 to go, the Pacers extended the lead to 39-31. Jason Kidd’s 3-pointer with 9.5 seconds left, New York’s first 3 of the game, made cut the deficit to 39-34 at the half.

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The NBA announced the suspension on Wednesday. Anthony will serve the suspension on Thursday when the Knicks take on the Indiana Pacers.

“There are no circumstances in which it is acceptable for a player to confront an opponent after a game,” NBA executive vice president basketball operations Stu Jackson said in a statement. “Carmelo Anthony attempted to engage with Kevin Garnett multiple times after Monday’s game and therefore a suspension was warranted.”

Anthony said before the suspension was announced that he did not believe he deserved to be disciplined.

“If you just go off the actual facts of what happened, I don’t think anything will happen,” Anthony said.

After he and Garnett were called for technical fouls for jawing at one another in the closing minutes of Monday’s game, Anthony approached Garnett at the Celtics’ team bus. Madison Square Garden security, New York City Police officers, team security and even Knicks coach Mike Woodson intervened before the incident could escalate.

Anthony said Tuesday that his “motivation” in finding Garnett after the game was to have a “one-on-one conversation” with him after the Boston big man spewed a verbal insult at Anthony.

“It’s certain things that you just don’t say to men, another man,” Anthony said Tuesday. “I felt that he crossed the line. Like I said, we’re both at an understanding right now; we handled it the way we handled it. Nobody needs to know what was said behind closed doors. So that situation is handled.”

Anthony’s teammate, Tyson Chandler, was on the floor at the time and agreed that Garnett crossed the line.

“I think it was a little too much, in all honesty,” Chandler said Wednesday in an appearance on “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN New York 98.7 FM. “I felt like Melo wanted to have a conversation man to man (with Garnett), and I respect that.”

According to a source close to Anthony, he and Garnett had a phone conversation after the confrontation to clear the air.

The Knicks’ star said Wednesday that he was ready to move on from the incident.

“That’s over with, don’t even want to go back to that,” Anthony said after practice. “Whatever happened between me and Kevin, that’s done. That’s settled. It’s done and over with. We move on, got Indiana (on Thursday). No disrespect, but I don’t wanna keep talking about the same thing and beating a dead horse.”

Anthony is averaging 29.0 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and is converting 42.8 percent of his 3-point attempts in one of his finest seasons as a pro.

It’s unclear at this point who will start in place of Anthony against the Pacers, who have won eight of 10.

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