MINNEAPOLIS — The last time the Timberwolves won six consecutive games as they did with Wednesday's 132-102 victory over Oklahoma City, Chris Finch coached in Germany, guard Malik Beasley was eight years old and the Wolves reached the Western Conference finals.
That was in 2004.
The Wolves won the regular season's final nine games — and two more to start the playoffs with Denver — in that 2003-04 season.
They won six consecutive games again on Wednesday — 18 years later.
They did so with guard Malik Beasley setting a club record for 3-pointers in a game with 11.
He went 11 for 17 from the field on Wednesday — all of them 3-point attempts – and snatched teammate Anthony Edwards' club record of 10 set in December.
Beasley's record-setting 11th came after he toyed with Oklahoma City's Vit Krejci, showing him the ball and then taking it away with his dribble before he stepped back behind the line.
He made that last attempt in the game's final five minutes, before Finch took him out to a loud ovation. Teammates Patrick Beverley and D'Angelo Russell doused him with water and sports drinks on the bench.
The Wolves won their sixth straight, beating a Thunder team they trounced by 37 points in Oklahoma City just five days earlier.
They did so led by Beasley, who made six of his first seven shots.
If Finch worried about any letdown against an opponent his team just had beaten 138-101 on Friday, he needn't have done so.
"You're always fighting human nature in these types of situations," Finch said before the game. "But I think our guys have a pretty good couple days. They felt like they were really dialed in this morning at the shootaround. I liked their attitude. We know where we're trying to go and we know we need these types of games."
Beasley made 6 of 7 shots in the first quarter alone. By quarter's end, he had 18 points all by himself and the Wolves had a 32-21 lead over a Thunder team that led them 34-32 after the first quarter last Friday.
After that, the Wolves outscored Oklahoma City 106-67 in the final three quarters, including a 30-14 bulge in the fourth quarter.
By halftime, Beasley was 7 for 9 for 21 points.
He missed his last shot just before the halftime ended and teammate Jaylen Nowell soaring, powerful put-back dunk sent the Wolves into halftime with a 27-point lead. That was their biggest of the first half.
Russell returned to action and Wednesday's starting lineup after he missed Monday's victory over Portland with "bilateral hamstring soreness."
Edwards was back, too, after he had missed the last four games because of left "patella tendinopathy." He last played in a Feb. 28 game at Cleveland.
The Wolves played on without guard Patrick Beverley and forward Jarred Vanderbilt.
Beverley missed Saturday's home game against Portland because of right ankle soreness, played 22 minutes against the Trail Blazers two nights later also at Target Center but was out again on Wednesday.
Vanderbilt didn't play because of a left quad contusion. Guard Jaylen Nowlen played despite a nasal contusion sustained when he got elbowed in the face in Monday's game.
The Thunder played without eight injured players of their own, including guard Josh Giddey, forward Luguentz Dort and guard Tre Mann who stepped on a fan's foot in Tuesday's 142-115 loss at Milwaukee. Veteran forwards Derrick Favors and Mike Muscala were out as well. Now in his ninth NBA season, Muscala has been out the last month because of right ankle soreness.
