INDIANAPOLIS _ Those free throws missed late in games that seemingly have vexed the Timberwolves so often this season did so no more in Tuesday's 115-114 comeback victory at Indiana.
Ricky Rubio's three free throws with 3.4 seconds left were the difference on a night when the Wolves trailed by seven points with more than four minutes left.
Rubio's shots after he was fouled attempting a 3-point shot followed two consecutive free throws made by young Wolves star Karl-Anthony Towns, who brought his team within 114-112 with 40 seconds left.
Pacers guard Monte Ellis' shot missed at the final buzzer.
The consecutive made free throws by Towns and Rubio followed two missed consecutively by Shabazz Muhammad earlier in the fourth quarter.
The comeback ended the Wolves' six-game losing streak and sent them home from an odd three-game trip 1-2 after loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles and at Portland.
Towns led the Wolves with a 37-point, 12-rebound while Paul George scored 37 for the Pacers.
George scored 25 of those 37 points by halftime on a night when he made 12 of 21 shots from the field and made all four of his 3-point shots in the first half, as well.
The Pacers still have not won consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 6, well before the All-Star break. For nearly a month after All-Star break, the Pacers alternated victories and losses for more than a month _ six of each _ before they lost consecutive games to Boston and Denver before they beat Philadelphia at home on Sunday.
Leading by eight points in the second quarter and by nine points three times in the third quarter, the Wolves surrendered George and the Pacers a 12-0 run that ended the third quarter.
Trailing 87-78 with three minutes left, the Pacers quickly lead 90-87 by third quarter's end and then by 92-87 in the fourth quarter's opening minutes after the scored that quarter's first two points before Towns answered back with a 3-point shot.
With the Wolves still behind 108-101 with more than four minutes remaining, Wiggins and teammate Karl-Anthony Towns led their team back with a 9-4 run that Wiggins both started and ended with baskets made.
Thibodeau was in a Las Vegas arena that hot summer's night in August 2014 when George landed awkwardly during a Team USA and broke his leg in an incident too gruesome to look.
Less than two full NBA seasons later, he has returned to the player he once was and maybe then some.
He showed as much again on Tuesday, when he scored 13 points in the first quarter and 12 in the second during a first half when the Pacers led by as many as seven points.
Thibodeau coached against him in the NBA for four seasons before that fateful night, when Thibodeau coached the Pacers' Eastern Conference rival Chicago Bulls.
"The way he has come back is a credit to him," Thibodeau said before Tuesday's game. "You always thought he would because of the makeup he has and the way he works. The respect I have for him is because of the way he plays both sides of the ball. He has turned himself into a great shooter and he can score so many different ways.
"That's why he is one of the elite players in our league."
George scored about every which way Tuesday, making those four threes by halftime and making nine of nine free throws by night's end in a matchup with the Wolves' Wiggins at both ends of the floor.
The Wolves scored the first quarter's final five points to turn a four-point deficit into a 26-25 lead and then opened the second by scoring 10 of the quarter's first 14 points.
By doing so, they led 36-29 before the second quarter was three minutes old and they still led by seven points midway through the quarter before George made consecutive 3-pointers during a 15-7 run that helped get Indiana back within 59-57 at the half.
