Garnett has to watch technical count

By Steve Aschburner, Star Tribune

Last update: March 17, 2007 - 11:25 PM

EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. - Most of Kevin Garnett's 11 technical fouls this season have been of the dueling variety, in which an opposing player and Garnett both get whistled by a referee trying to maintain control and avoid escalation. That's how Garnett picked up one Friday night at Golden State, planting his heels against Warriors guard Baron Davis on pick-and-roll contact that drew whistles on both of them.

The problem for the Timberwolves is that, while Davis can be replaced by someone like Monta Ellis if he gets a second T, an automatic ejection, the Wolves have no reasonable facsimile for Garnett.

Coach Randy Wittman said that his team's All-Star forward routinely gets baited by opponents, hockey style, in hopes that he'll lose his cool entirely.

"I have a lot of trust in Kevin that he knows when he has a tech," the coach said after practice Saturday. "It's almost like that player you leave out there early in the third quarter with four fouls, knowing that he's not going to commit a dumb foul. I haven't ever really thought he was on the edge of getting a second one."

The Wolves could lose Garnett for more than part of a game if he racks up five more T's in the next 18 games; NBA rules impose a one-game suspension once a player gets to 16 technicals.

Said Wittman: "He's emotional. The guy [Davis] tries to run through him, Kevin's going to stand up for himself. Those I don't have a problem with. It's the one where the trash-talking, mouthy type things, I'd like to see him stay away from, and I think he does for the most part."

Call him 'T. Rex'

Assistant coach Rex Kalamian also got a technical foul Friday for griping about a traveling noncall right in front of the Wolves bench. He said Saturday he also had grown tired of seeing Garnett getting slapped by Davis, fouls that weren't called, and that ref Zach Zarba didn't like it.

Kalamian said that he got his only other technical while with the Clippers, complaining about a double-standard for Lakers star Kobe Bryant -- something that could put him in the refs' cross hairs again tonight. But he wouldn't be the first Wolves assistant to blister an official's ears; Wittman and Jerry Sichting were known to get a little mouthy.

"That's why he [Wittman] didn't get mad," Kalamian said, laughing.

Ha ha. But the T still will cost him a $1,000 fine.

Steve Aschburner • saschburner@startribune.com

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