Garnett Makes Pro Debut

KG's Rookie Season
11/4/1995

The Timberwolves are still, well, the Timberwolves. Turnarounds don't come easy for this team. As a matter of fact, nothing comes easy for the Wolves, especially victories in NBA regular-season openers. The Wolves lost another one Friday night, falling to the Sacramento Kings 95-86 at Arco Arena.

The Wolves will remember their fifth consecutive loss in season openers as one of the nights they couldn't shoot straight. Despite pulling down 17 offensive rebounds, the Wolves made only 29 of 79 shots, allowing the Kings to roll to a relatively easy victory. ``When you get as many as offensive boards as we did, you'd think we win,'' Wolves guard Terry Porter said. ``Not to take anything away from Sacramento, but if we make the shots we had, we could have had this one.''

Kevin Garnett, the first player to jump from high school to the NBA in 20 years, had eight points and one assist in his pro debut. Garnett was 4 for 4 from the floor, but few noticed in the wake of the Wolves' poor shooting.

Garnett made his regular-season debut with 5:55 left in the quarter, and scored his first points about 2 minutes later, a bank shot on a feed underneath from Gugliotta. Garnett got even more comfortable in the second quarter, threading two nice passes during a stretch in which the Wolves outscored the Kings 7-0. He did not look overwhelmed. "Kevin handled himself very nicely," said Blair. "Kevin has a good idea of how to play."