"It's only been five years, that's all.

Almost exactly, by the way. The last time the Timberwolves stood at .500 more than two games into a season, Kevin Garnett was still calling Target Center home and Kevin Love had yet to arrive.

The Wolves beat Houston for the second time in a week, a 100-91 victory Saturday that featured a strong start and a fairly controversial third-quarter play that dialed up an already intense game to the physical extreme.

But the Wolves withstood a late Houston run to improve to 12-12. The Wolves have had a few chances to reach that level lately. Finally, at home, they did it.

"We responded, and we needed to respond," said Love, who scored 25 points and had 18 rebounds. He was referring to the Rockets who, down 16 early in the third quarter, pulled to within three twice in the fourth quarter. The second time came when Kyle Lowry drove the lane to make it 88-85 with 5:16 left.

The response: Nikola Pekovic scored off Love's pass. After Houston's Chandler Parsons missed at the other end, Luke Ridnour (22 points) hit a three in the corner off a pass from J.J. Barea. Coming out of a timeout, the Wolves did enough to keep ahead of the Rockets down the stretch.

"We needed to get up on their shooters and rebound the basketball," Love said. "Ultimately, we got stops.""