Mark this down as a bit of trivia and a milestone: With their Christmas win over the Lakers, the Timberwolves improved to 21-13. That puts them eight games over .500 for the first time since the 2003-04 season, which was also the last time they made the playoffs — going all the way that season to the Western Conference finals.
The Wolves finished that year 58-24 (34 games over .500, which is quite a few more than eight). In the following season, Minnesota was seven games over .500 a few times early on, the last being at 15-8.