MINNEAPOLIS _ The Wolves on Saturday were playing on the back end of one of the most difficult back-to-backs you might think of.
Friday in Houston the Wolves lost both a game to the Rockets and star Jimmy Butler to a knee injury for at least a good while. And then they were unable to get out of town because of mechanical difficulties with their plane; they didn't hit the ground in Minnesota until after noon on Saturday.
So: strikes one and two.
Don't count them out yet.
With Butler out, in front of the 11th sellout of the season _ despite a snowstorm _ the Wolves found scoring from a lot of places and defense when it mattered in a 122-104 victory over Chicago.
The backcourt of Jeff Teague and Andrew Wiggins combined for 48 points. Teague had 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Wiggins scored 23. Jamal Crawford scored 19 off the bench, including 12 in a long Wolves run that began at the end of the third quarter. Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 points and 13 rebounds. Taj Gibson had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The Wolves are now 3-4 without Butler.
Chicago was led by former Wolves player Zach LaVine (21). Bobby Portis had15 off the bench.
After allowing the Bulls to score 62 points in the first two quarters, the Wolves held them to 42 in the second half.
In a back-and-forth game, a 3-pointer by Crawford put the Wolves up 86-82 entering the fourth quarter.
That was the start of a 13-2 run _ with Crawford hitting three 3-pointers in the process _ that put the Wolves up 96-84 on Crawford's 3-pointer with 9:24 left, equaling the Wolves' biggest lead of the night and forcing a Bulls time out.
It wasn't over.
Crawford fed Towns out of the time out, pushing the lead to 14. After a Bulls turnover, Nemanja Bjelica was fouled and hit one of two. That made it a 16-2 run that was finally ended when Kris Dunn hit one of two free throws with just over 8 minutes left.
But Crawford hit another 3 at 7:57, giving him 12 points _ on four 3-pointers _ in a span of 4{ minutes. And it put the Wolves up 17 points. That run eventually ran to 21-3 on Tyus Jones' steal and fast-break basket.
