NEW YORK — Boston's Kevin Garnett won the NBA's defensive player of the year award today. He beat out Denver's Marcus Camby and Houston's Shane Battier.

The 6-foot-11 forward led the Celtics with 9.2 rebounds per game. He added 18.8 points, 1.2 blocks and 1.4 steals.

Garnett helped the Celtics to league-best records of 66-16 (.805) overall and 31-10 (.738) on the road. Boston held opponents to just 90.3 points (second in the NBA) after allowing 99.2 points per game a season ago. The Celtics had the biggest one-year turnaround in NBA history.

Garnett received 493 points, including 90 first-place votes. Camby, who won the award last season, finished second with 178 points and Battier had 175 points.