Minnesota was playing with fire through three quarters Tuesday in Minneapolis

Playing a Philadelphia 76ers team that played the night prior and was missing a number of key players, including stars Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, the Wolves largely struggled on both ends of the floor for the first 36 minutes of the affair. Energy and intensity were both low. The game was tied at 80-80 with seconds remaining in the third quarter.

The Wolves were flirting with another potentially disastrous defeat, the likes of which they can ill afford in the race to grab a top-six seed and avoid the play-in tournament.

But the Wolves caught fire at the right time at Target Center. It started with a Mike Conley banked-in heave from half court to give Minnesota a 3-point advantage rolling into the final frame. The make seemed to remove the lid from the bucket, as the Wolves made their first five triple tries to open the fourth quarter to expand the lead to 14 in the blink of an eye en route to a 126-112 victory.

Between the third and fourth quarter, Conley looked at his teammates and said “This is the group.” It was Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels and Donte DiVincenzo. Those five had a strong stint in the second quarter that gave Minnesota a bit of breathing room, and had the opportunity to do so again. They delivered.

“That group was just really gelling. Some nights you have groups that really work well. Tonight was one of those nights for us,” Alexander-Walker said. “We had to rely on small things, and those little details helped us tonight.”

The ball moved, and good shots were the end result.

“I think it was just the energy we were putting towards it. You could see we were playing with a good pace,” Conley said. “The ball was moving side to side. We were just trying to break the paint and see what we could create for each other. We had a good group that was out there doing it, and it led to some easier looks for guys, more confident looks. And we knocked them down.”

Philadelphia was led by 30 points from Quentin Grimes, a role player who has shined in a larger role of late. Grimes scored 44 points over the weekend in a 76ers win over Golden State. Kelly Oubre added 24 points for the 76ers (21-40), who are in severe danger of missing the Eastern Conference play-in tournament altogether.

Minnesota (34-29) featured a committee approach on offense. Reid led the way with 23 points on the strength of five triples. Alexander-Walker had 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting. DiVincenzeo had four made 3-pointers and eight assists. McDaniels had 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting. Conley had 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

The Wolves shot 57 percent from the field and 45 percent from distance, a shooting performance that outshined the team’s 19 turnovers.

“We can’t go back to that type of basketball,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said of the turnovers, an issue that plagued Minnesota earlier in the season but has been largely eradicated of late. “But yeah, we found a good rhythm there in the fourth, and that was enough.”

Tuesday’s win pushed Minnesota into eighth place in the West, a half-game clear of Sacramento. Minnesota will play in Charlotte on Wednesday.

Said Alexander-Walker, on the floor after the game: “I think it’s a great time for us to to go on a run, stack wins.”