DALLAS _ There were air balls. Lots of them.
Against a non-playoff team, with plenty on the line, the Timberwolves came out with their worst first quarter of the season and were still shooting under 35 percent at halftime.
But Dallas was worse. And the Wolves got better.
And so Friday night, against the Mavericks at American Airlines Center, the Wolves won, 93-92. On a night where, with all the games being played around the country, the NBA's Western Conference race was in mighty flux, the Wolves played just well enough to win for the second straight time and the fourth time in six games.
Against the Mavericks, one fairly good quarter was all it took.
And that was the fourth.
Up just three entering the final quarter, and up just one moments into it, the Wolves finally managed a 15-7 run to push their lead to 82-73 with 7:05 left to go.
It was Jamal Crawford, off the bench, who led the way. He scored 13 fourth-quarter points, including a jumper with 9.6 seconds left that iced the game.
The Wolves (44-33) led by 12 in the fourth, but went cold, letting the Mavs (23-53) pull with two points on Dennis Smith Jr.'s basket with 28.3 seconds left. But Crawford hit a jumper with 9.6 seconds left to seal the game. Yogi Ferrell hit a 3 with 0.8 sends left to finish the scoring.
A game after setting the franchise record with 56 points against Atlanta, Towns struggled with his shot early, but got better as time went on. But he banged the boards from start to finish. He had 21 points on 8-for-21 shooting, but had 20 rebounds.
Crawford scored 24 off the bench.
Smith had 17 points and Harrison Barnes had 19 for the Mavs.
The Wolves came out cold and produced their lowest-scoring first quarter of the season, which ended with Dallas _ which wasn't' playing much better _ leading 20-16.
With about 2{ minutes remaining in the quarter the Wolves were down 18-10, had made just 3 of 17 shots and had turned the ball over three times.
It really didn't get much better in the second half, with the Wolves missing shot after shot and the Mavericks failing to capitalize with constant turnovers.
By the time the half ended the Mavericks were up by just two points _ 46-44 _ despite shooting 45.2 percent to the Wolves' 34.1 and having hit seven 3-pointers to the Wolves' two.
Here's why: The Wolves had a 12-1 edge on scoring from the free-throw line and a 10-4 edge on points off turnovers.
Still, Towns was just 4-for-12, Andrew Wiggins 2-for-10.
The Wolves trailed by as many as nine in the second quarter and were still up 46-39 after Dirk Nowitzki hit a 3-pointer late.
But Crawford responded with a corner 3 of his own, and then Towns stole the inbounds pass and scored with 0.4 seconds left in the half, making it a two-point game.
It wasn't until 7:22 left in the third quarter that the Wolves took their first lead, 54-53, on Jeff Teague's basket.
The game was tied at 58 late in the third quarter when the Wolves had a mini-run. Teague's 3-pointer started an 8-2 run that put the Wolves up 66-60, Minnesota's biggest lead of the game. But that lead was down to three, 67-64, at quarter's end.
