"He's at home in bed. That's where he should be," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said before the game. "He's pretty bad. I know his fever's really high. For Kevin not to play any game is unusual. To not play this game means he's really sick."

Glen "Big Baby" Davis started in Garnett's place at power forward and had 12 points and six rebounds.

Jefferson had 34 points and 11 rebounds for the Wolves, who acquired Jefferson, forward Ryan Gomes and point guard Sebastian Telfair in the July 31, 2007, trade that sent Garnett to Boston.

Fans also greeted Gomes with warm applause Sunday, as well as Wolves coach Kevin McHale, who played 13 seasons for the Celtics and helped them win three NBA titles during the 1980s.

Asked if he had a sense that Boston fans wanted to thank him for trading Garnett there, McHale said, "I tell you what, I'm thankful that we got Al Jefferson, too."

Sunday's game was the second in four meetings with the Wolves that Garnett has missed since the trade.

A strained abdominal muscle kept him out of last season's game at Target Center.

Still healing: Veteran point guard Kevin Ollie, who hasn't played since suffering a dislocated left elbow in a Jan. 3 game at Chicago, was in the Wolves' locker room before the game and said he hopes to be back soon.

"I had a fracture in there, too, and they say that's healing," he said. "It's just painful now and range of motion, trying to get that back. I started shooting this past week, was cleared to shoot. I just can't dribble with my left hand and stuff."

Ollie, who lives in Connecticut, said he couldn't pinpoint a day or week when he might return and isn't sure when he'll be back in the Twin Cities.

Asked if it has been tough to watch with the team playing better, he said: "It's been tough, period. Hopefully, I can get back in the mix where I can be somebody coach McHale can trust to give him and those guys some rest."

Future shock: McHale, asked if he could have envisioned himself coaching during his playing days, said no way.

"When I was really younger back in Boston, Bill Fitch was my first coach," he said, "and at that point I was very anti-coaching. Bill yelled at me, Bill yelled at us all, all the time."

Asked if he would have guessed that he and Celtics teammates Larry Bird and Danny Ainge would all end up in coaching or front-office jobs, McHale offered a qualified yes.

"Maybe Danny," he said. "Because Danny, until they actually had CNN where you could watch the news, didn't have any idea what was going on in the world. But he could tell you that the shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies was batting .238. It was unreal. ... So Danny, yes. The rest of us, no."

Big Al fan: Jefferson got a strong pregame endorsement from Rivers, who said he couldn't believe that the Wolves' big man didn't make the All-Star Game.

"You know how I feel about Al," Rivers said. "His time is coming. He's young and he's getting better. We were having a discussion earlier this morning as a staff who's a better post player than Al and we had zero names."

Jefferson's reaction?

"I appreciate that," he said. "It especially means a lot for Doc to say that because he was my coach coming into this league. He's seen me coming from nothing, so for him to say that, it means a lot, too."

Briefly: The Wolves invited 300 season-ticketholders to brunch and watch the game at NBA City restaurant in Target Center.