1) I didn't go to last night's Wolves game. I have my reasons: some are practical, some are professional, and some are just plain weird.

From a practical standpoint, it just didn't fit into my week. With a small baby at home, sleep is a treasured friend and a rare commodity, and I pretty much knew if I went that I would go out afterwards and that the rest of my week could very well be shot. Lame? Yes. I'm lame.

From a professional standpoint, I've found that sometimes when I'm at a live event, I forget to focus on the actual game. As much as it would have added to the understanding of the night and KG's return, from an atmosphere standpoint, to be there … I really wanted to focus on the basketball and try to take the emotion out of it. So I watched on TV, as free of distractions as possible. I didn't even tweet during the game!

And from a weird standpoint, there was probably a part of me that feared it would be a train wreck and didn't want to see 20,000 Minnesotans let down. We deserve nice things. It, of course, started like a train wreck … but the total sum of the evening was far from that. It was glorious. Maybe I'll kick myself 20 years from now for not being there. But in a weird way, I'm more interested in being at KG's next game than I was in being there last night.

2) It was just one game. A skidding Washington team was the perfect opponent. The Wolves were already improving thanks to their return to health. But if you've watched enough bad Minnesota basketball in the past decade — and you know I have — then you know this and need to believe this: the Wolves haven't played defense like that since KG left.

That's hyperbole, I'm sure, since you could pick out some game in the last eight years where the numbers say their defense was better. But in the broader sense, they have not played D like that since Garnett left: closing out on shooters, communicating on screens, contesting every shot … these are fundamental things, but they have so often been missing.

When KG blocked a corner 3 to end the first half, keeping the game tied 42-42 … it sounds ridiculous and hard to measure, but it was just a reminder of what good basketball looks like. A 38-year-old KG is a better, more valuable basketball player than a 26-year-old Thad Young — particularly on a team that has been missing these fundamentals for so long. I'm very serious about this.

3) I would like to see KG play forever. That is not practical. Short of that, I'd like to see him for the rest of this year and then one more year — as long as his body is willing and able. Part of it is that I love the symmetry of No. 21 playing 21 seasons. Again, I'm weird.

More of it is that a handful of weeks of this will be a building block, but it won't be enough. Next year, with the team the Wolves are building, could really start to emerge — not in the sense of contention, mind you, but in the sense of seeing the blueprint start to take shape. It would almost be like KG's rookie year (26 wins) and his second year (40 wins).

Garnett should be here to shepherd that and to contribute to that. He should get a proper going away around the NBA for an amazing career. And then he should retire in peace, learning from Brett Favre's 2010 season and Jim Thome's 2011 season that one year of magic — assuming next year is what I think it could be — does not qualify you for a second year of magic.

For now, though, let's live in the moment. Last night was a game nobody thought would ever happen — not even KG himself. It was more than nostalgia. It was an honest homecoming, the rekindling of a love affair. And it was beautiful.