CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ On Sunday, the Timberwolves lost a home game to Detroit because of a lopsided fourth quarter in which the Pistons' tag team of big man Andre Drummond and point guard Reggie Jackson scored at will on the pick-and-roll.
On Monday, they lost 118-102 at Charlotte after they couldn't stop Hornets forward Frank Kaminsky or Dwight Howard, each all by himself.
Kaminsky scored 24 points off the bench, whether it was whirling drives to the basket or deft jumpers. Howard delivered a 25-point, 20-rebound performance, the 49th 20-20 game of his career.
The Wolves lost for the second time in as many nights after they had built a 10-4 record in their first 14 games this season.
If you'd forgotten Kaminsky is one of the guys who ended Kentucky's perfect season at 38-0 when he led Wisconsin to a 2015 Final Four semifinal upset, well, Wolves center and former Kentucky star Karl-Anthony Towns certainly hasn't.
Kaminsky scored in all sorts of ways, including his fourth and final 3-pointer of the night that gave the Hornets a 12-point lead with fewer than six minutes remaining.
Howard's 25/20 game didn't hurt any, either.
Veteran guard Jamal Crawford led the Wolves with 19 points off the bench, just a night after he left Sunday's loss very early because of a migraine headache.
Towns' 18-point, 12-rebound night was a double-double of his own and point guard Jeff Teague scored 18 as well.
The last time the teams played, the Wolves won 112-94 at Target Center two weeks earlier.
The Hornets played that night on the wing against Jimmy Butler and Andrew Wiggins without defensive specialist Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Nic Batum.
Both were back in the starting lineup on Monday, when the Hornets led by as much as 115-98 in the final minutes. Batum scored 17 points, eight fewer than Howard's 25 points.
Trailing by 10 points with three minutes left, the Wolves resorted to fouling Howard on every possession, even though he brought cheers from the home crowd when he made four of six free throws until then.
The night before, the Wolves were outscored 29-17 in a fourth quarter when they couldn't stop Drummond and Jackson time and again and lost 100-97.
