‘Wolves Dispatch Reeling Clippers

Two games above .500 and riding a four-game winning streak when they flew out of Los Angeles on Monday, the Clippers returned late Saturday night packing a three-game losing streak and a record below .500.

On the plus side, they beat it out of Minneapolis before the first major snowstorm of the season threatened to leave them stranded.

Their 103-91 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in front of 16,080 in the Target Center, in a game the Timberwolves led almost from beginning to end, followed losses at Cleveland and Indianapolis, leaving the Clippers eager to reverse the trend starting Monday night against the Houston Rockets at Staples Center.

“I think we realize that we’ve got a ways to go,” guard Quentin Richardson said. “Coach has told us we’re definitely not good enough to have lapses like that defensively. And offensively we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do.”

What they mostly did against the Timberwolves was give the ball to Richardson and get out of the way. After making only nine of 35 shots in the first two games of the trip, he made 12 of 19 against the Timberwolves, four of five from beyond the three-point arc, and scored a career-high 36 points.

But after Richardson scored the game’s first four points on one possession in the opening minute, the Timberwolves scored 19 of the next 24 to move into the lead for good.

Minnesota led by 15 points in the first quarter and by 20 in the fourth.

In between, the Clippers never got closer than five points.

Kevin Garnett led the Timberwolves with 30 points and 19 rebounds. Sam Cassell had 18 points, eight assists and no turnovers, Latrell Sprewell scored 14 points and reserves Fred Hoiberg and Gary Trent each scored 12 points.

After winning Friday night at Cleveland, the Timberwolves were playing their second game in two nights -- and without injured former Clipper center Michael Olowodandi, who sat out because of knee tendinits.

But by building a big early lead they enabled Coach Flip Saunders to substitute freely to keep them fresh.

“It’s easier when you’re playing like that,” he said. “Instead of Garnett playing 41 [minutes], you play him [37] and what you see in the fourth quarter, he has a little bit extra juice when you need it with 4 1/2, five minutes to go.”

Not that they needed them all that much -- they never led by fewer than 10 points in the fourth quarter -- but a driving dunk, two jumpers and an assist by Garnett highlighted a 12-2 run that stretched the lead to 101-81.

All that was left for the Clippers was to get to the airport.

In addition to the monster effort from Richardson, they got season highs of 12 points and 15 rebounds from rookie Chris Kaman and 15 points from center Predrag Drobnjak.

But Corey Maggette scored only eight points on three-for-10 shooting, closing out a trip in which he averaged 14.7 on 26% shooting.

“The guys have played hard,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said of his young team. “They haven’t quit. We get down; we come back. But we’re just learning how to win. We don’t know what we have to do in situations.

“Veteran guys understand that when you’re making a run back, you can’t waste a possession because every one is a pressure point on [the other team]. We have a tendency to waste some of those possessions.

“We just have to understand it better and I’ve got to try to point it out as we go and get us to be smarter players and better players.”