Poor defense has played a big role in the Dallas Mavericks undergoing their worst losing streak in more than a year.

Seeing the skid continue Wednesday might be deemed inexcusable by the Mavericks, who will look to take advantage of a home game against one of the league's worst teams as they meet the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Dallas (9-5) let the opposition shoot better than 50 percent from the field for a second consecutive game Monday in a 110-98 loss to Washington.

It was the Mavericks' third straight defeat - their longest losing streak since starting last season 0-4 - and first of the season by a double-digit margin.

"We couldn't make enough defensive plays," Dirk Nowitzki said. "Whatever they wanted, they got."

Dallas gave up more than 105 points for the second time in three outings after doing so once through its first 11 games. The Mavericks have failed to force more than 13 turnovers in any game during this skid after forcing an average of 16.4 during a five-game winning streak.

"It's always defense," Mavs coach Avery Johnson said. "If we don't get stops, we can't get in our running game. Once we get to a level of consistency, we'll be pretty good again."

While Dallas is coming off its first home loss, the Timberwolves (2-10) are looking to build off their first road victory.

Minnesota cracked the 100-point barrier for just the third time this season on Monday, beating New Orleans 103-94 to snap a five-game losing streak. That came against a Hornets team which is among the league leaders in points allowed (92.9 per game), but the Timberwolves are still one of the NBA's lowest-scoring teams at 93.4 per contest.

Minnesota blew fourth-quarter leads in each of its previous two games, and was coming off a loss in which it led by as many as 21 points against Atlanta.

"We definitely felt we needed to change something," Timberwolves swingman Marko Jaric said. "We played well, we feel confidence, we just need to learn how to close the games. I just hope we made the first step."

Jaric, averaging 9.3 points this season, has scored at least 20 in back-to-back games and now could draw a tough assignment if he's guarded by Josh Howard.

Besides being possibly Dallas' best defender, Howard is averaging 21.3 points to rank second on the team behind Nowitzki (21.4). Nowitzki scored 31 points and Howard added 17 on Monday, but Jason Terry had a season-low three points on 1-of-9 shooting while Jerry Stackhouse was 2-of-9 for six points.

Terry is averaging 10.0 points - nearly 7 1/2 below his season average - and shooting 32.6 percent from the field (15-of-46) over his last four games. Stackhouse has been struggling for most of the season, scoring 8.5 points per game and shooting 33.0 percent.

Dallas has won the last five meetings, holding Minnesota to an average of 82.4 points.