MINNEAPOLIS _ A 17th sellout crowd this season showed up at Target Center Saturday night to celebrate the first NBA playoff game there since 2004.
So did All-Stars Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns and the Timberwolves in a 121-105 victory against the Houston Rockets.
The Wolves hadn't played a playoff game at Target Center since Kevin Garnett and Latrell Sprewell played Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference finals there long ago.
By winning convincingly, the Wolves drew within 2-1 in a first-round series that's the best of seven games and delighted a hometown audience that dreamily chanted "Wolves in Six" as the game's final minutes counted down.
Game 4 is Monday night at Target Center.
A day after Wolves veteran point guard Jeff Teague called for his team to play with more freedom and pace, the Wolves swiped a chapter from the Rockets' unique playbook and matched them 3-point shot for 3-points shot.
Each team made 15 3-pointers _ although the Wolves attempted 14 fewer on a night when Houston star Chris Paul fouled out with fewer than 3{ minutes left.
The Wolves beat the Rockets for the first time in seven games this season. They were swept 4-0 in the regular-season and lost this playoff series' first two games.
Butler took just six shots in Wednesday's lopsided Game 2 loss at Houston and Towns scored just 13 points combined in the series' first two games.
Vexed by the Rockets' underrated defense through the first-round playoff series, both players stepped forth with their season on the line and the possibility of elimination in a Game 4 on the line.
Butler delivered a 28-point, seven-rebound, five-assist performance and Towns found energy and space to solve the Rockets' double- and triple-team schemes in a game when the Wolves never trailed by more than four points and led by as many as 19 in the fourth quarter.
Towns finished with one of his typical double-doubles; an 18-point, 16-rebound night that wasn't so typical after he struggled so to find himself in Houston.
Wolves forward Andrew Wiggins supplied 20 points, five assists and five rebounds, too, and Rockets superstar James Harden scored 29 points.
The Rockets pulled within 99-90 with 6{ minutes left when Harden scored on a drive to the basket that he turned into a foul and a three-point play.
From there, the Wolves slammed the door, scoring the next nine points unanswered.
Teague started and finished that 9-0 burst, opening with a three-point play of his own and finished with a gutsy 3-point shot sandwiched around Butler's 3-pointer from the right corner.
The Wolves were unable to close out yet another quarter in this series when they allowed Houston a 14-4 run that ended the second half.
But they turned the proverbial tables the very next quarter, erasing the Rockets' 61-59 lead early in the quarter by outscoring Houston 28-14 over the third quarter's final eight minutes.
They did so behind Teague, whose eight points in the third quarter helped the Wolves outscored the Rockets 35-24 in it. Then his 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter helped the Wolves scored nine of the fourth quarter's first 11 points, too, on their way to a 96-77 lead with fewer than 10 minutes remaining.
The Wolves outplayed the Rockets in a first half when they led by 11 points with four minutes remaining. But they went to halftime leading only 52-51 when the Rockets finished the half with a 14-4 run.
They did so by _ what else? _ shooting the three-point shot. The Rockets launched 22 of their night's 41 by halftime and three of them were made 3s in succession by Paul, Harden and forward Trevor Ariza.
