The starting lineup of Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng combined to score 95 of the Wolves’ points in a 116-111 loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday night.

James Harden scored 29 points and 14 assists, Patrick Beverley added a season-high 18 points and career-high 10 assists while Michael Beasley — aka Super Cool Beas, aka B-Easy — added 16 points on 8-of-14 shooting off-the-bench for Houston.

The Wolves have lost 10 of the previous 11 matchups between these clubs.

Shabazz Muhammad scored 12 of the Wolves’ 14 bench points proving, yet again, as was the case in recent losses to Charlotte and Phoenix, that depth is an issue that must be addressed during the offseason.

‘‘We played hard,” interim coach Sam Mitchell told the Star Tribune’s Jerry Zgoda after the game. “They just made some shots. This team can make some shots. I thought we competed and played well.”

The Wolves — two-days removed from posting 42 points in the opening frame against Memphis earlier in the week, tying their season-high in any quarter — scored merely 23 points in the first against Houston — who, as The AP’s Jordan Godwin points out, ranks among the league’s worst in terms of first-quarter points allowed this season (27.5). Just a few days earlier, Houston had given up a season-high 72 points in the first half of a 122-106 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The loss marks an end to a four-game road trip in which the Wolves finished 2-2, with wins over Oklahoma City and Memphis and losses to Phoenix and Houston. Mitchell and the gang return to Target Center on Monday for a matchup with Golden State, followed by another home game (vs. Sacramento) on Wednesday.

“It’s hard to complain, I don’t think we did a lot of things bad,” Mitchell said.

“I’m pleased with the effort for such a long trip. Any time you go on a four-game trip, win two and you were in every game and had a chance to win them all, that’s all you can ask for.”

Zach Bennett

Zachary Bennett covers all types of basketball, though most of his work focuses on the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. He is a contributor to the Hardwood Paroxysm Basketball Network, and has written at SB Nation’s Canis Hoopus. Find him on Twitter: @ZacharyBD.

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