"The last time the Timberwolves threw the basketball around so recklessly, at least their coach didn't have to watch it.

The Wolves trumped the 26 times they turned the ball over during the season's second game at Milwaukee by committing 28 turnovers in Friday's 104-97 loss to Dallas.

And this time, Rick Adelman saw every one.

The Wolves could have moved into winning territory for the season and swept the Mavericks for the first time since the 1995-96 season, when a scrawny kid named Kevin Garnett was a rookie.

They could have if they weren't so careless with the ball and if Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki didn't look every bit the player who on Thursday was voted into his 11th All-Star Game by scoring a season-high 33 points.

After his postgame sermon, you expected Adelman to send every player home with a ball to cuddle all night long before Saturday's home game against 6-day-old sensation Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks.

"You can turn the ball over making a play," said Adelman, who missed the season's second game to attend a family funeral, "but we turned it over just so casual. We get the ball and you just flip it. The ball's precious. We preach to them all the time that we want to defend better and then when we finally did make stops, we just handed it back."

Seven Timberwolves committed three turnovers or more. Kevin Love had five in his first game back from a two-game NBA suspension but said the brief layoff had nothing to do with a night when he also delivered his eighth 30-10 game, scoring 32 points and adding 12 rebounds."