There are a lot of reasons why Kevin Garnett should be recognized as the league’s best defensive player this season. Maybe he’ll get the nod and maybe he won’t. The case on why he should isn’t difficult to make, though, as we trace the history of the award and other possible candidates. History tends to dictate the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year is a shot-blocker first and foremost. Since the award — voted on by the media — began in 1983 with Milwaukee Bucks uber-defender Sidney Moncrief winning the first two years, 16 of the next 23 winners were shot-blockers — including Marcus Camby last year.

That’s not to say the shot-blocker, who's virtually always an exceptional rebounder as well, doesn’t deserve the award. It’s just easier to distinguish the cause and effect, recognizing that it isn’t just that particular stat that makes the difference, but the intimidation factor as well. When you have guys like Camby, four-time winner Dikembe Mutombo and multiple winners such as Hakeem Olajuwon and Alonzo Mourning patrolling the paint, it does allow the rest of the team to play tougher on the ball because he’s back there as a fierce last line of defense.

The same can be said for on-the-ball pressure, with Hornets point guard Chris Paul leading the league in steals, although that rarely predicates the award-winner.

It would make it easy to tab Camby again considering he’s leading the league blocks again and is right up there in rebounds. Young Magic center Dwight Howard will garner a lot of votes, too, since he’s leading everyone in rebounding and is near the top of the league in blocks.

The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, a fierce one-on-one defender will get his share of votes because he’s so talented and popular overall. Generally speaking, it’s difficult to single out individual defenders. Over the years, other than Moncrief, the awards have gone to great one-on-one defenders such as Michael Jordan, Gary Payton, Dennis Rodman and Ron Artest. There are those who believe the Spurs’ Bruce Bowen has deserved it for years but can’t get the necessary votes because there is a perceived notion of dirty play on his part.

This year, we’re going a different direction, giving the nod to a team-defense guy who is making everyone around him better: the Celtics’ Garnett. That’s not to say Garnett hasn’t been acknowledged as a great defender before. He was voted first-team All-Defense six years in a row by the coaches until slipping to second team the past two seasons. KG has never been voted the top defender by the media and this time around he should.

Ironically, his overall individual defensive statistics — 1.3 blocks, 1.4 steals and 9.4 rebounds — are below average over the breadth of his career. But the spidery arms, great hands, superior defensive knowledge and instincts of the 6-11, 240-pound Garnett have made the Celtics the best defensive team in the league this season. His help defense has given everybody else on the team more confidence and enhanced the team’s overall defensive IQ.

Heck, Celtics center Kendrick Perkins has more blocks than Garnett. But KG’s presence has given the young starter the freedom and confidence to come from the weak side and becoming an increasingly effective shot-blocker.

It’s hard to say how the rest of the voters will go in this instance. Camby will get a lot of votes again, so will Howard considering how much he and the Magic have risen in the NBA consciousness this season. And certainly neither would be the wrong choice.

Nonetheless, the reason Garnett deserves this is the same reason he will attract a lot of votes for Most Valuable Player too – he does so much to make the other players better with his consistent presence – his overall impact is incalculable.

To be sure, coach Doc Rivers and his staff deserve a lot of credit for transforming this team on the defensive end into a powerhouse that is leading the league in field-goal defense and defensive scoring average But none of it would have been possible without the towering president of “The Big Ticket,” in the middle of the fray to control things.

That’s why in my book, Garnett stands alone as the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year.

The good news for the Orlando Magic is their home record is finally starting to catch up with the road record. The bad news is it's because they’re starting to lose more frequently on the road.

In the latest adventure of Mickey and Minnie’s friends, the Magic blew a 19-point, third-quarter lead at Charlotte Wednesday night. They now have lost six of eight games, and while they really seem in no danger of slipping too far in such a weak conference, the Washington Wizards have very quietly pulled to within two games of them in the Southeast Division -- dead even in the loss column -- with the Atlanta Hawks just another game back.

How can this be for Stan Van Gundy’s crew that started off the season 14-3 and appeared to be serious contenders in the East?

It took awhile for the rest of the league to figure out what to do with budding superstar Dwight Howard and uber-shooter Rashard Lewis (he of the ridiculous $118 million sign-and-trade deal). They were unstoppable the first dozen games or so, with Lewis scoring at least 20 points in nine of the first 11 games and shooting well above 50 percent. Howard was the monster from the deep, dominating everything inside on both ends of the floor.

They were the first team to beat the Celtics and expectations began to glow for Van Gundy, in his first season back as a head coach since leaving Miami under bizarre circumstances.

But these guys were different. With the even more versatile Hedo Turkoglu joining Lewis at forward, it was a deadly combination. Early on, it didn’t seem to matter that Van Gundy couldn’t settle between Jameer Nelson and Carlos Arroyo as his point guard. Or that Keith Bogans blew very hot and very cold at shooting guard.

And then it began to matter a lot, particularly once defenses began to rough up Lewis a little bit. He reached 20 points only three times in his next 17 games, and even though he has gotten back on track lately, his scoring average and shooting percentage overall are his worst in four years. Worse yet, Van Gundy doesn’t appear to have any choice for a while at point guard, since Nelson went down with a strained tendon in his right foot Wednesday night. The Magic turned the ball over 19 times, the obvious reason they blew the lead, and the word is out how poorly they respond to pressure defense -- especially Lewis.

This isn’t quite as pronounced as last season, when they began the season 14-5 and ultimately backed into the playoffs and were promptly swept by the Pistons. This team seems better equipped for no other reason than Howard is getting better all the time and Lewis does have some playoff experience. But they’ve been hurt terribly by veteran post man Tony Battie’s season-ending shoulder surgery in October. And they’ve found out what the Lakers already knew about Brian Cook when he came in the Trevor Ariza deal with Maurice Evans. Cook is just an oversized perimeter shooter.

So what we do know is that Howard doesn’t have any help inside, and at least for now, he really doesn’t need much. But how will Lewis respond to the added expectations? And the point guard situation will be season-long, unless Nelson’s foot injury takes him out for an extended period of time.

Still, any team that is 16-7 on the road can’t be that bad ... or is Howard just that good? Come playoff time, we’ll find out.