The Timberwolves have lost to a few cellar-dwellers of late. They’ve closed a few games poorly. They’ve experienced slippage in key areas.

One thing they haven’t done: Lose to a short-handed team.

That trend continued Thursday in Milwaukee, as Minnesota trounced the Bucks — who were sans two of their four best players in Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard — 129-105 to get back on track after Tuesday’s disappointing loss in Chicago.

“I just thought our minds were in the right place. The game in Chicago was tough, trade deadline, all that stuff coming in,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said in his postgame, on-court television interview. “For us to lock in on this one, on the game plan defensively with Giannis, big matchup for us. Our bigs did a great job, our guards did a great job filling in the gaps and getting easy buckets on the offensive end.”

Minnesota essentially led throughout, holding a double-digit lead at the half. But the Wolves have thoroughly outplayed opponents for two or even three quarters of games recently, only to collapse late and turn wins into losses.

Thursday marked a departure from that course. The Wolves put Milwaukee away with a 28-11 run to open the third frame.

Minnesota was crisp offensively, shooting 55 percent from the field while knocking down 21 triples. Five players — Anthony Edwards (26), Karl-Anthony Towns (19), Conley (18), Naz Reid (17) and Rudy Gobert (16) — scored 16-plus points.

Conley went 6 for 7 from deep while tacking on nine assists and five rebounds in one of his more active offensive performances to date.

“I’m always feeling good — my shot is always feeling good. And tonight was one of those nights where guys were finding me, the ball was finding in the right spots. Rudy is one of the best screeners in the league, getting me open and allowing me to get to my spots,” Conley said. “I love having nights like tonight. Hopefully we get more of them.”

It was one of Minnesota’s better offensive showings of the season, as the Wolves committed just eight turnovers while assisting on 34 of their 48 made shots.

“Offensively, I thought we found a lot of really good shots, and we didn’t turn the ball over,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters. “Just kind of executed. Didn’t force anything when it wasn’t there and kept plugging away.”

On the other end, Minnesota suffocated Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Without his two scoring wingmen, Antetokounmpo was forced to generate essentially all of Milwaukee’s offense. Minnesota (36-16) made it nearly impossible for him to do so, sagging into the paint to supply as much help as possible and force others to beat the Wolves.

That simply didn’t happen. Malik Beasley went 0 for 9 from deep and 1 for 13 from the field. Antetokounmpo finished with just 21 points — 10 below his average — as the Bucks (33-19) logged just 38 points in the paint as they suffered their fifth loss in their last six contests.

“You have to match his physicality. He’s one of the best players in our game, especially in the paint when he gets to his spots,” Conley said of Antetokounmpo. “Our guys really did a good job of walling up and being strong, being physical and making it tougher on him, because it’s impossible to stop him.”

What Minnesota has done so well against teams playing at less than 100% of their arsenal is exposing their weaknesses. The Wolves smell blood in the water and they pounce.

A big piece of the credit belongs to the coaching staff, which identifies the remaining players capable of beating Minnesota and removing them from the equation with the defensive game plan. On nights like Thursday, the Wolves force opponents to drastically adjust and make their No. 8 or No. 9 guy beat them. As the contest in Milwaukee reminded everyone, that will rarely ever occur.

“It was going to be a fly-around game. You’re going to put multiple bodies in front of Giannis, and after that, you’ve just got to be ready to get out to the perimeter,” Finch said. “Guys did a good job of scrambling. And Rudy did a really good job of directing traffic. … Just the effort was there.”

Briefly

Minnesota officially announced the trade acquisition of Monte Morris on Thursday night. Morris was not active for the game against Milwaukee. Jaden McDaniels left the game late with a left sprained index finger.