Wolves

Kevin Martin will make injury return tonight vs. Celtics

Kevin Martin plans to play tonight against Boston at Target Center, his first game back since he fractured his right shooting wrist against New York on Nov. 19.

By Kent Youngblood

January 28, 2015 at 8:13PM

Minnesota Timberwolves Kevin Martin (23) passed the ball to a teammate in the first quarter. (Dml - Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Kevin Martin plans to play tonight against Boston at Target Center, his first game back since he fractured his right shooting wrist against New York on Nov. 19, according to sources with knowledge of his health.

He had hoped to make his return last Wednesday against Dallas, but awoke that morning with it significantly swollen.

He had fluid drained from it on Thursday and has had a compression brace on it since then.

He said Monday night in Oklahoma City that the wrist felt better than it had since before he began practicing with it two weeks earlier.

He shot before the game in Oklahoma City, apparently very, very well. "Great," he said when asked how it went. "That's one thing I can do, shoot."

Martin said then he needed one more hard practice day on Tuesday with assitant coach Ryan Saunders and maybe some one-on-one work with Ricky Rubio and hoped to play Wednesday.

Apparently, all went well yesterday.

Martin underwent surgery Nov. 25 in Cleveland.

Last week, Nikola Pekovic returned after missing 31 games.

This week, Martin appears ready to go.

Is Ricky Rubio far behind?

He was seen at shootaround this morning doing a reaction drill, cutting and moving to a series of flashing lights set on cones. Flip Saunders said Sunday he was hopeful that both Martin and Rubio would play within a week.

In other news:

--Meanwhile, the Wolves will be very well represented at the Rising Stars Challenge game over All Star Weekend. The league announced this afternoon that rookies Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins and second-year players Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad will participate in the game. Dieng and Wiggins will play for the World Team while Muhammad and LaVine will play for the U.S. Team. The Wolves are the first team ever to have four players play in this game, which began in 1994.

--Meanwhile, guard Lorenzo Brown was at shootaround today. His signing should be announced soon, and he should play tonight, as Mo Williams is missing the game for personal reasons.