MINNEAPOLIS_The last time the Minnesota Timberwolves won four consecutive games, Rick Adelman coached them, J.J. Barea played for them and big, center Nikola Pekovic's not only still played, but his feet didn't hurt.
On Saturday at Target Center, the Wolves achieved something far too rare for them, but all so common for most other franchises when they defeated Dallas 112-99, their fourth consecutive victory.
They also improved their record in this very young season to 6-3 with their first victory that didn't come in the game's final minute.
This time, the Wolves closed the first quarter and started the second one with a 25-9 run that sent them off to a victory in which they led by as many as 28 points left in the third quarter before the Mavericks pulled themselves within as few as 13 points in the final five minutes.
That, it turns out, was the final margin as well.
The comeback was enough that Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau put his starters back in the game for the finish after they otherwise would have gone to the bench to watch the rest of the night.
They did so by beating a Mavericks team for which Barea now once again plays. Dallas lost its sixth consecutive game and now is 1-10 in a season seven seasons removed from their 2011 NBA championship.
Just months after that, the Wolves defeated Cleveland, New Orleans, Denver and Dallas on Dec. 15, 2012, the same night Ricky Rubio returned from a knee injury that ended his rookie season, the same night Adelman started Pekovic, Alexey Shved, Andrei Kirilenko and Dante Cunningham.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins were still in high school then.
Fast forward five years and Wolves star Jimmy Butler, for one, isn't about to look back.
"It's a new time," Butler said before Saturday's game. "You can't be stuck in the past. You've got to move forward."
They moved ahead Saturday by thumping a Mavericks team that had lost to New Orleans at home the night before. They set season highs for assists (33) and rebounds (48).
Towns led them with a 31-point, 22-rebound double-double while veteran forward Taj Gibson and veteran point guard Jeff Teague each had one of his very own.
Gibson did so with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Teague with 11 points and 10 assists. Wiggins added 23.
Rookie Dennis Smith Jr. led Dallas with 18 points.
By game's end, Thibodeau had reserves Cole Aldrich, Aaron Brooks and Marcus Georges-Hunt on the floor.
Asked after the game if he and his teammates can savor this four-game winning streak, Towns told the Target Center crowd, "No, we're looking for five in a row tomorrow."
If the Wolves beat Charlotte Sunday at Target Center, it will be their first five-game winning streak since Kevin McHale coached Al Jefferson and Kevin Love to that many in January 2009.
Asked if the hometown fans can savor four straight, Towns said, "Absolutely."
In a game when the score once was tied at 13, the Wolves ended the first quarter and started the second on a 25-9 run that started with them scoring 10 unanswered points.
Towns scored six of the points and Wiggins and Teague had four each in a 14-3 burst that ended the first quarter and then reserves Nemanja Bjelica and Tyus Jones started the second quarter's opening 11-6 run by shooting _ and making _ three-pointers.
Bjelica made the first, Jones made the next two on a night when Bjelica made himself the only Wolves player who has made at least one three-point shot in the team's first nine games.
He entered the game second in the NBA in three-point percentage (.591), second only to Oklahoma City's Raymond Felton's .611.
When Bjelica made his first two threes Saturday, he boosted that percentage to .625, 15-for-22 for the season up to that point.
He's not only shooting the ball well and shooting it from three-point distance, he's also shooting it from three-point distance with deep range behind the line.
"I'm in a good rhythm and Coach wants me to shoot the ball as much as I can" Bjelica said before Saturday's game. "I always have that range, "but sometimes I want to put the ball on the floor and that was my problem last year. I know what they want from me and what I'm doing here."
