Vasquez's double-double leads Hornets past Wolves

"I threw a few lineups out in the first half just to try to get some energy," Williams said. "This is what young teams go through, the day in and day out grind of the NBA. It's hard to get your mental focus up and a lot of times young guys just can't do it."

Greivis Vasquez had 18 points and 13 assists for the Hornets, who have now won four consecutive games for the first time since last April.

Eric Gordon added 16 points, Ryan Anderson had 15, Jason Smith 14, Al-Farouz Aminu 12 and Roger Mason 10 for the Hornets, who have won five of six games with Gordon in the starting lineup. Aminu also had 13 rebounds.

"We definitely are really stringing it together," Anderson said. "Obviously, that first quarter, we want to play better than that. We really gave a great effort to come back in that game."

Luke Ridnour led the Timberwolves with 20 points. Nikola Pekovic added 18 points, Andrei Kirilenko 17, Dante Cunningham 12 and Alexey Shved 11 as Minnesota dressed out only nine players because of injuries.

Ricky Rubio was held to 3 points on 1-for-3 shooting.

"I think (fatigue) is some of it," acting Timberwolves coach Terry Porter said. "I'm not trying to take away anything that New Orleans did. It seemed like at times some guys had some heavy legs."

The Timberwolves dominated the lane early, scoring 30 points in the paint to take a 46-40 halftime lead. But the Hornets' collapsing defense held the Timberwolves to 4-of-16 shooting in the third quarter and New Orleans outscored Minnesota 30-15 to take a 70-61 lead.

After being on the short end of a 30-20 margin in points in the lane in the first half, New Orleans took control underneath and had a 40-34 advantage at the end of the third period. The Hornets, who gave up 70 points underneath in an earlier loss to the Timberwolves, outscored Minnesota 48-40 in the paint.