When the Brooklyn Nets dealt Kevin Garnett to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Thaddeus Young, they picked up a player they felt could help them reach the playoffs while allowing an NBA legend to likely end his career with the team that drafted him.
Young has made it his mission to return to the postseason, while Garnett continues to battle knee problems.
The Nets look to hand the Timberwolves a fifth straight defeat Monday night as Young makes his return to Minnesota.
The deal was struck at the Feb. 19 trade deadline, giving Young the opportunity to compete for the playoffs with Brooklyn (26-38) as Minnesota (14-51) acquired Garnett, who guided the franchise through its most successful years in the mid-1990s and early 2000s.
Young has averaged 16.3 points while starting the last four after coming off the bench in his first eight with the Nets. He scored 21 as Brooklyn snapped a five-game losing streak Saturday with a 94-87 win over Philadelphia, another of Young's former teams going through a major rebuilding project.
"Hopefully this is the one that gets us on a winning streak," Young said. "We're going to take this game and we're going to try to piggyback off it and go out there and get some more wins."
The Nets, who allowed 106.6 points per game during the losing streak, sit three games behind Charlotte for the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot.
"That's been our focus all along - continue to play, continue to win games and hopefully when the end of the season comes we're in one of those playoff spots," Young said. "We're fighting and we're battling for it. That's our main focus right now."
The Timberwolves are building for the future, but they brought back a piece of their past when they acquired Garnett, who spent the last season and a half with Brooklyn.
Garnett, though, has missed the last four games with a knee injury and plans to get a second opinion Monday. There's a chance he'll sit out against his former team.
Minnesota went winless on a four-game road trip after falling 123-97 to San Antonio on Sunday. It also was without Ricky Rubio (sore left knee) and Nikola Pekovic (sore right ankle), who has missed the last two. Their statuses for this contest are unclear.
Kevin Martin had 19 points and Zach LaVine added 18.
"It's easy to judge guys when your team is playing good and their energy is up," coach Flip Saunders said. "But how do you play the fourth game in (seven) nights on the road when you're tired and playing against a good team?"
Saunders hopes at the very least his team could learn from what it saw from the Spurs.
"The value is looking at the players we played and how they played and how you're trying to play like them," Saunders said. "That's the biggest thing."
Minnesota picked up one of its few wins on the season against Brooklyn with help from Young. He finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Timberwolves in a 98-91 victory Nov. 5.
The Wolves have won nine of the last 10 meetings in Minnesota and eight of the last 11 overall.
