The Timberwolves welcomed newcomer Lance Stephenson to his new team by playing him the entire fourth quarter and sending him and his new teammates home happy into the cold night, thanks to a 112-109 comeback victory over Toronto at Target Center.

They did so after backup point guard Tyus Jones also played the entire fourth quarter and made the crucial three-point shot that gave the Wolves a 110-107 with 19.5 seconds left and essentially won the game.

Andrew Wiggins’ two clutch free throws put the Wolves ahead by three points with 10.6 seconds after Raptors forward Jonas Valanciunas dunk brought his team within one.

Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry’s desperation three-point that would have tied the game missed from the left corner as time expired after the Wolves scored on their final seven possessions and held the Raptors down when they needed to do so.

Toronto’s All Star-studded backcourt of Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combined to score 50 points while Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns led the Wolves by combining for 60 themselves.

The Raptors three times led by five points, four times by just a bucket and once by a single point in a fourth quarter until the Wolves took a 106-105 lead on Wiggins turnaround jump shot with 47.6 seconds left. Hannah Foslien, Associated Press Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas, left, of Lithuania, rebounds against Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns during the second quarter of an NBA basketball game on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Hannah Foslien)

When Lowry missed a three pointer, Wolves forward Shabazz Muhammad snatched the rebound off the floor away from Toronto’s DeMarre Carroll and was immediately fouled with 34.3 seconds left.

As he had done less than a minute earlier, Muhammad made one of two free throws and the Wolves led 107-105.

But DeRozan responded with a driving layup and scored through contact his 29th and 30th points of the night that tied the game with 29.5 seconds left until Jones stepped forth with his three pointer.

Trailing by eight points in the first quarter and by 13 in the second, the Wolves reversed course to start the second half and turned a 63-53 halftime deficit into a brief one-point lead with an opening 18-7 run.

They did so by unexpectedly featuring forward Gorgui Dieng, primarily a defender and rebounder who opened the second half by making a three-pointer and then pushed the ball in transition like a man several inches short and fed Andrew Wiggins for a dunk that got the Wolves within 68-66 before the third quarter was little more than three minutes old.

The Wolves’ 71-70 lead midway through the third quarter didn’t last long, not after the Raptors countered with a 13-6 run of their own that helped push them their lead back to as big as seven points late in the third quarter.

Wednesday’s game featured the debut of the newest Timberwolf, veteran shooting guard Stephenson.

Signed Wednesday morning to a 10-day contract, Stephenson played 20 minutes – including the entire fourth quarter when he defended Lowry near game’s end – with Wednesday morning’s shootaround the only thing close to a practice he had under his belt since he arrived in Minnesota on Tuesday.

He delivered six points, four rebounds and an assist in those 20 minutes.

“Looks good, looks like he belongs,” Wiggins said before the game. “He knows the game of basketball. He has been in the league a long time. He should help us right away.”

Just two nights earlier, the Wolves surrendered 70 first-half points and allowed Miami to shoot nearly 61 percent by halftime of a 115-113 loss they nearly came back to win.

Afterward, Thibodeau vowed something has to change and he said he’d seek needed improvement from himself, his team and pointedly from what he called his best players without naming them.

On Wednesday, the Raptors shot 60.5 percent in the first half and scored a mere 63 points while they built a 10-point halftime lead.

They did it with DeRozan and Lowry combining to score 31 of those 63 points: DeRozan had 16 of them on 6-for-14 shooting from the field and Lowry had 15 efficient points, nine of them on three three-pointers made.

“It’s one of the best offensive teams in the league,” Thibodeau said before the game. “They put a lot of pressure on you. They have an elite backcourt. They play together. They put pressure on the rim. They’re a downhill team.”

They’re also now a team that now has won three consecutive games without injured forward Patrick Patterson after they had lost eight of 10 games before primarily while DeRozan missed seven of eight games because of a sprained and sore right ankle. Hannah Foslien • Associated Press Minnesota Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins (22) shoots against Toronto Raptors forward DeMarre Carroll during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Hannah Foslien)

DeRozan’s 30-point night was his 19th consecutive game played with at least 20 points scored, the longest such streak of his career.

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