Wolves beat similarly feeble Heat

The teams with the NBA's two worst records met Tuesday, and the Timberwolves walked from Target Center into the good night with their eight-game losing streak over -- and their competitive edge renewed for at least an evening -- with an 101-91 victory over the Miami Heat.

Winless since Dec. 21, the Wolves revved their legs during a long, tough practice Monday morning that followed what star forward Al Jefferson calls Sunday's "embarrassing" home loss to Dallas and then ran off to leads of 23-13, 53-38 and 72-53 against a Heat team missing veteran centers Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning.

The Wolves stuttered down the stretch, but this time didn't succumb, a 13-point lead with fewer than six minutes remaining melted down to six with 2 minutes, 32 seconds left. Then Jefferson repelled the Heat with an inside basket, coming after the Wolves both refused to take open outside shots and then also missed them.

"I'm great, I'm great, I'm great, great, great," Wolves forward Ryan Gomes said afterward when asked how he was doing. "We had to get this one."

The Wolves won for the fifth time in their first 34 games and ended that eight-game losing streak -- their season's longest -- while the Heat fell to 8-27 and extended its own losing streak to eight.

"They're coming in with seven straight losses, we're coming in with eight," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said. "We knew this was going to be an attrition of wills."

Wolves players credited Monday's grueling practice for their fast start on a night when Wittman inserted Rashad McCants into the starting lineup alongside fellow guards Marko Jaric and Sebastian Telfair. The home team produced enough energy to make Miami coach Pat Riley desperately search for what Riley termed "someone who [could] guard somebody."

"We had a strong running practice yesterday and we got the idea where Coach was coming from," Telfair said.

McCants responded with a game-high 27 points -- his third consecutive 20-plus point game -- and the Wolves responded with a season-high 29 assists, a 26-13 edge in second-chance points and a 26-15 edge in points off turnovers.

All five Wolves starters, including Gomes and Jefferson, played 36 minutes or more and scored in double figures.

"Guys hit shots," McCants said of a team that shot 48.8 percent, a smidgen better than Miami's 48.5. "You're going to have high assist rates when guys hit shots."

Three weeks ago, the Heat rallied from four points behind with six minutes left in Miami to beat the Wolves on a night when star guard Dwyane Wade scored 30 points, 18 of them from the free-throw line, 14 of those 18 in the second half. On Tuesday, Wade scored 25 points, with only five of them coming from the foul line.

On Monday, Wittman said he will not judge his team on victories and defeats but rather on its improvement, a statement he was reminded about after Tuesday's game.

"C'mon," he said. "I need wins. We need wins."