Wolves record: 14-45


Minnesota trailed 50-42 at halftime with just one less rebound than the Hawks, but after Atlanta pushed the lead to 77-61 on Evans’ three-point play with 2:05 left in the third quarter, the visitors got busy.

Atlanta native Damien Wilkins, whose brother Dominique is a color radio announcer for the Hawks franchise for which he once starred, started the fourth quarter off with a steal and scored eight of his 15 points off the bench in a 10-0 Minnesota run that cut Atlanta’s lead to 78-76.

Wilkins’ three-point play with 10:14 to go, on a possession that began with him blocking a Horford shot at the other end, might’ve prompted a Woodson timeout but for the fact he’d just called one 17 seconds earlier.

After Johnson missed a shot for Atlanta, Kevin Love grabbed one of his 12 rebounds, and soon the Wolves were shooting for the lead.

Rookie Wayne Ellington missed a 3-pointer, though, and Bibby grabbed the rebound.

“We couldn’t find a way to score and we were getting good looks,” Wolves coach Kurt Rambis said. “I thought our defense was pretty good for most of the game. That’s what really carried us, but as usual for us as a ballclub, we were inconsistent. We were inconsistent with our effort, inconsistent with our defense, inconsistent with our offense.”

Jefferson took little satisfaction in playing a competitive game against Atlanta after losing by 25 in Minneapolis on Dec. 22. The Timberwolves have dropped eight straight in the series.

“At the end of the day we still lost the game, so I can’t be too excited about whether we lost to them by 20 or we lost to them by six,” Jefferson said. “We still lost.”

• Corey Brewer made two more three pointers on Wednesday. The first one, midway through the third quarter, extended his franchise record streak of consecutive games with a three to 23. His streak is the NBA’s third-longest current one behind Houston’s Aaron Brooks (29) and Denver’s Chauncey Billups (25). Brewer is tied with Dallas’ Jason Kidd at 23 straight games.

• A tired body and back-to-back games apparently finally caught up with Milicic. He played 11 minutes after getting 19 and 24 in his first two games and had no points, two rebounds and three personal fouls.