MINNEAPOLIS — One night after they escaped Target Center with a late victory they didn't deserve, the Timberwolves welcomed guard Malik Beasley back from a 12-game NBA suspension with a resounding 129-107 loss to Houston.
On Friday, the Rockets led by 19 points and still lost after they allowed the Wolves a 22-0 run that ended a game in which Wolves star Karl-Anthony Towns delivered 29 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists.
His performance included 14 of those points in the fourth quarter alone in an 107-101 comeback victory over an opponent that until Saturday won one game since Feb. 4.
In the rematch 24 hours later, the Rockets led by 29 points before halftime and by 34 points in the third quarter after they trailed early in the last of back-to-back games between the teams.
This time, there would be no Wolves comeback, not after Houston used its three-point shooting and runs of 8-0 and 13-2 in the second quarter to build such a lead even the Rockets couldn't give away.
By then, a Houston team that recently lost 20 consecutive games and 22 of its last 23 games already made 10 3-pointers and led 71-42 late in the first half.
This from the Rockets, who entered the game 29th in the NBA in field-goal percentage and 30th in 3-point percentage.
Kevin Porter Jr. led Houston with 25 points while Towns had 27 points and 15 rebounds for the Wolves.
The Wolves never drew closer than 18 points after halftime before the Rockets pushed their lead quickly back to 32 points.
Beasley returned to action — and to the starting lineup — Saturday for the first time since a Feb. 24 game at Chicago and scored 13 points and made three 3s on 4-for-17 shooting in nearly 30 minutes played.
Beasley was suspended by the NBA after that game for 12 games without pay because he had pleaded guilty to a felony charge of threatening to commit a crime of violence last September.
Until the suspension, he was the team's second-leading scorer who averaged 20.5 points a game and 33 minutes played until Wolves coach Chris Finch expanded other players' roles when Beasley was available to only practice with his teammates and train at the Wolves' downtown Minneapolis facility.
He also led the Wolves in 3-point shooting percentage and 3-pointers made until the February suspension came down.
Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Jaylen Nowell all saw their playing time increase this last month before Saturday. That's when Beasley moved back to the starting five while big man Jarred Vanderbilt moved to a reserve's roll and didn't play Saturday until late in the third quarter.
It took Beasley two minutes into Saturday's game to shoot his first 3-pointer, which missed.
He scored his first points in a month running the right wing with Towns pushing the ball in transition before Towns delivered a mostly no-look pass to Beasley. He finished the break with a right-handed slam dunk that gave the Wolves a 19-14 lead with fewer than five minutes gone in the game.
By then, he was the last of the Wolves' five starters to score after fellow starters Towns, Edwards, Ricky Rubio and McDaniels already had done so.
By the time he made his first 3-pointer of the night, the Wolves trailed 89-60 midway through the third quarter.
