But by night’s end, Love had his fifth straight double-double with 19 points and 12 boards, four other players scored in double figures (Shved with 17, Luke Ridnour with 13, Nikola Pekovic with 11 and Malcolm Lee with 10), and the Wolves did force 15 lead changes and held the biggest advantage of the evening at nine points early in the second. “We just have to focus and finish games off,” forward Josh Howard said. That’s the challenge as Minnesota moves forward. The problem hasn’t been getting off to fast starts, an issue the Wolves had last season, but instead finding ways to hold off opponents’ runs late in ballgames. Minnesota has led in four of their last five games heading into the fourth quarter. They’re 1-4 in that stretch. Each night seems to pose a different scenario for the Wolves. Wednesday’s caveat was Kirilenko’s absence—a major blow, because he’s a player who affects so many aspects of the game. The night before, he turned in 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and three blocks. But with injuries changing the lineup nightly, Kirilenko has played no fewer than 35 minutes in each of his last eight games and has played 40 or more in four of those contests. What Minnesota needs is to regroup at home on Friday against Milwaukee, take their three days after the Bucks game to recuperate and be prepped for their two-game road trip to Philadelphia and Boston next week. The key to that equation is the fourth quarter. “I thought we played really hard,” Adelman said. “We just have to stay after it, get better every day, and finish games.”