"Instead of rejoicing in Kevin Love's return from a two-game suspension, the Timberwolves are thinking about looking in the mirror again and wondering how their performance could have deteriorated so fast.

Friday night's 104-97 loss to Dallas before 17,119 fans at Target Center was so discouraging that coach Rick Adelman had painful flashbacks to earlier in the season, when the Wolves couldn't shake an obsession with turnovers and mental errors.

Adelman saw his team commit a season-high 28 turnovers and enough defensive mistakes to question its attention span in what should have been a festive occasion on the club's home floor.

"We just slipped backwards," Adelman said. "I was very disappointed in our concentration. We never gave ourselves a chance. We've got to get our concentration back to where it needs to be."

The 28 turnovers led to 30 points for the defending NBA champions, leaving Adelman at a loss for words to explain how his team could be so "casual and careless" with the ball. Adelman even wondered if his players "value" the ball, an assertion that baffled the veteran coach and might lead him to a back-to-the-basics approach. "