wolves/nba

DALLAS - Keep this up, and the Timberwolves are going to have a surgeon general's warning sewn somewhere prominently on their uniforms.

The tricky part is determining to whose health the Wolves are more hazardous: cardiac patients (the fourth quarter) or those already battling depression (the first three quarters).

For the second time in as many games, the Wolves waited until the final 12 minutes of the game to get seriously involved in the competition, and this time it cost them in a 93-87 loss to the Dallas Mavericks Monday night at American Airlines Center.

Much as they had 48 hours earlier in a comeback from 12 points down to the Clippers, the Wolves had the Mavericks backpedaling, casting sidelong glances at each other and measuring every shot.

This time, instead of cranking the decibel level hard to the right at Target Center, they gave it a twist to the left, hushing up a Dallas crowd heavy with Mark Cuban whine-abes.

Sparked again by rookie guard Randy Foye, who scored 14 down the stretch Saturday, the Wolves (6-7) turned what had been a 20-point hole a few minutes earlier into a frenzy.

Making like Dwyane Wade in a microcosm of last June's NBA Finals, Foye scored 11 points in the first 8:16 of the fourth quarter as Minnesota cut a 76-61 deficit to 84-80.

"There was like four minutes left," Foye said later, of the moment when he and his teammates truly began to believe, all over again. "It was like, man, there's four minutes left and we're down eight. If we get it to four by two minutes, then we can make this a game. That's what we did."

Defensively, the Wolves had gone zone, daring Dallas to beat them over the top. And the Mavericks didn't, missing seven of their first 10 shots in the quarter with six turnovers. Eventually, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and Josh Howard were missing open looks, while Ricky Davis' layup and Mark Blount's jumper tied it 84-84 with 2:34 to play.

Twice Minnesota had chances to go ahead. But Garnett's shot from out front bounced off, and Foye couldn't convert after penetrating to the baseline. With 1:06 left, Howard's floater from the left baseline put the Mavericks up by two. Foye missed a jumper at 54.9 seconds, and Stackhouse sank two free throws at 32.9.

Getting that lead might have made all the difference.

"Absolutely," said Garnett, who finished with a rhythm-less 19 points and 12 rebounds. "You get the lead and this crowd's a little dimmer, they don't feed off that. We couldn't get over the hump."

They got close. After a heated moment in which Howard and Garnett got technicals, Blount made a three-pointer to make it 88-87 with 23 seconds left. The Wolves fouled and Terry obliged by missing the second of two free throws. Using their final timeout, the Wolves fed Ricky Davis with an inbounds pass. Davis attacked on the right side of the lane but Dallas center Erick Dampier tracked it the whole way, swatting the visitors' last best chance.

The Mavericks (10-4) had taken the Wolves' nice, little three-game winning streak and raised it by seven. Never mind their 17 points in the fourth quarter; Dallas crammed the boxscore with 33 points in the first, when Minnesota was merely trading baskets and worse.

That's a tough way to play and a rare way to win, since the fourth-quarter comeback Saturday, from 12 down, was the Wolves' biggest in seven years. This time, they tried to do it from 15.

"We saw déjà vu coming from Saturday night," coach Dwane Casey said. " But again, our starts -- we've got to get a battery charger to get us going the first quarter."

Which is hazardous, ultimately, to the Wolves' health.

Steve Aschburner • saschburner@startribune.com