Garnett suffered a right shoulder injury when he landed hard after being fouled on a dunk attempt with 3:55 left in the first half. He went to the locker room a minute later but returned early in the second half and registered 20 points and 12 rebounds.
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Wolves-Hornets: 300k 
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"We were nervous," Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said. "He took a good shot and we will have to see how he is tomorrow. After he came back in he played pretty well."
The Timberwolves, who led by as many as 16 in the fourth quarter, also received strong effort from their bench, which combined for 43 points.
Eddie Griffin led Minnesota's reserves with a season-high 23 points and Fred Hoiberg added 15.
"I thought tonight our bench was great," Saunders added. "What Freddy was able to do and what Eddie was able to do, those guys gave us a good spark. As I told the guys, we played five games basically in seven or eight days in five different cities. Your bench is going to have to be big and it is going to have to play some substantial minutes and give good production."
The Timberwolves shot just under 51 percent from the field percent (39-of-77), marking the fifth time this season the Hornets allowed an opponent to shoot at least 50 percent.
"I felt more comfortable out there and they were finding me when I was open," said Griffin, who fell two points shy of his career high. "I was making my open shots."
Lee Nailon scored 21 points off the bench and David Wesley added 14 for the Hornets, who dropped their eighth straight game - their longest losing streak in 11 years - and extended the worst start in franchise history.
New Orleans slipped eight games under .500 for the first time since the 1998-99 season.
Down 46-37 at the half, the Hornets scored nine of the first 11 points of the third quarter, but again were plagued by turnovers and lack of execution.
"We are making way too many mistakes on the floor to win and that's it," Wesley said. "You start adding the number of mistakes we make and we are just not good enough to win."
"Hopefully, once you get one, things will snowball a little bit for you," New Orleans coach Byron Scott said.
Rookie Matt Freije, who was signed by the Hornets on Friday, provided by some excitement by hitting three 3-pointers in the final 13 seconds to close the gap.
Minnesota's Sam Cassell, who scored 20 points, hit four free throws in the final 23 seconds to ice the victory.
The Timberwolves played without Michael Olowokandi, who did not travel with the team due to flu-like symptoms.