Wolves stop Dallas for four-game winning streak

The last time the Timberwolves won four consecutive games, Rick Adelman coached them, J.J. Barea played for them and now retired Nikola Pekovic's feet didn't hurt yet.

On Saturday at Target Center, they achieved something far too rare for them, but all so common for most other franchises when they defeated Dallas 112-99 for their fourth consecutive victory. It also was the Mavericks' fifth consecutive loss.

If all goes the way the Wolves intend, in five years they'll never remember such a milestone.

Or maybe in five games …

"It's just one of many," Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns said. "Hopefully four will seem like a little bit to us. It'll seem like we're having a bad season if we only get four in a row."

For now, they're 6-3, lead the competitive Northwest Division by a game and are tied for third in the Western Conference after they won for the first time this season without needing to do so in the final minute.

They're also 6-1 in games when veteran All Star Jimmy Butler plays, even when he goes 1-for-7 from the field and scores just four points as he did Saturday. Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau praised Butler after Saturday's game for making the right plays and playing a "great game" while scoring four points.

"I'm not giving up anything, as long as we win I'm happy," Butler said. "That's what they brought me here for, to help this organization win. I feel like I'm doing a great job with that.

''… Like I've said my whole career, I don't give a damn what my stats are. I think winning makes everybody happy."

On Saturday, the Wolves set season highs for assists (33) and rebounds (48), and Karl-Anthony Towns, Taj Gibson and Jeff Teague all achieved double-doubles.

Included was Towns' 31-point, 12-rebound night that came after he scored just two points and played 22½ minutes because of persistent foul trouble in a victory at New Orleans on Wednesday night.

"It doesn't feel like a bounce-back to me," said Towns, whose three blocked shots Saturday give him 11 in the past four games. "It just felt like another game. I came in determined, obviously."

He and his teammates left Target Center after they thumped a Dallas team for which Barea (14 points in 19 minutes) once again plays.

They did so with a 25-9 run that ended the first quarter and started the second on their way to a 28-point lead late in the third quarter.

The Mavericks made a spunky fourth-quarter comeback to cut the lead in half. That forced Thibdoeau to send his starters back into the game on the first night of consecutive home games.

"Pleased with the win, but there are obviously things we have to work on," Thibodeau said. "Obviously, it's better than losing. The big thing is for us to concentrate on improvement…

''If you start feeling good about yourself, you're going to get knocked down. We really haven't done anything other than win four games in a row."

The Mavericks are off to a 1-10 start seven seasons after it won the 2011 NBA title.

Just six months after Dallas' championship celebration, the Wolves beat Cleveland, New Orleans, Denver and this same Mavericks franchise consecutively. Their Dec. 15, 2010 victory came 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, Luke Ridnour and Dante Cunningham.

Towns and Andrew Wiggins were in high school the last time the Wolves won that many consecutively.

"It's four in a row," Towns said. "It's a number. It's the number before five, and we hope to get to five."

Their opportunity awaits Sunday night at Target Center, where a victory over Charlotte would be the Wolves' longest winning streak since Kevin McHale coached Kevin Love and Al Jefferson to five consecutive victories during a 10-2 stretch in January 2009.

Asked about the last four games, Butler said, "It means a lot to everybody here, this organization, this city. This is what we want. We want to win, any way, shape or form."