An audience announced at a near sellout arrived Wednesday night for Kevin Garnett's now-annual visit to Target Center and they exited grumbling about the same thing they had cheered for 12 seasons.
KG made the play and got the call.
Boston's last-heartbeat 92-90 victory over the Wolves delivered other things Wednesday night:
•Oleksiy Pecherov's career-high 24 points while matched up in a battle of will and skill against Garnett nearly all night.
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•Rajon Rondo's dynamic third quarter that brought the Celtics back from a 10-point deficit and arrived two days after the point guard -- whom the Wolves sought in the 2007 trade that sent Garnett to Boston -- agreed to a new $55 million contract.
•Noise that echoed inside the arena all night, created both by many Celtics fans who wore green No. 5 Garnett jerseys and by Wolves fans surprised and delighted that the home team stayed in it until the very end.
Ultimately, though, those fans who didn't leave the arena green and giddy left remembering an official's call with 3.6 seconds left, when Garnett reached in as Wolves guard Corey Brewer drove for the tying basket and came away with his palm wrapped around the ball and a jump-ball call by referee David Jones.
Garnett yelped and flexed his muscles right in front of the front-row seats where both his wife and music producer Jimmy "Jam" Harris used to sit and celebrated a winning defensive stand from a Celtics team that won another NBA championship that way two seasons ago. This victory kept them undefeated this season at 6-0.