Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award on Tuesday, receiving 493 points and 90 first-place votes. Nuggets center Marcus Camby, who won the award last year, finished second in the voting with 178 points. Rockets forward Shane Battier placed third with 175 points.

Garnett proved to be the anchor of the Celtics defense during his first season in Boston, as reported by TICKER: 

Boston held opponents to 90.3 points per game, the league’s second-best mark. It was a marked improvement from last season, when Boston surrendered 99.2 points per contest.

Garnett’s 18.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game helped lead Boston to the biggest turnaround in NBA history, winning 66 games after last year’s Celtics squad finished with just 42 wins. 

K.G. also finished the season averaging 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. He has averaged at least one steal and one block per game in each of his 13 seasons in the NBA.

Garnett is the twelfth-straight forward or center to win the award. Gary Payton was the last guard to win, doing so after the 1995-96 season. Sidney Moncrief was the first player to win the award in 1982-83.

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