Minnesota coach Tom Thibodeau got a loud ovation during pregame introductions before his first game back in Chicago, and his Timberwolves made it a triumphant return.

Zach LaVine scored 24 points, Andrew Wiggins added 23 and Minnesota rallied to beat the Bulls 99-94 on Tuesday night.

The Timberwolves wiped out a 21-point deficit and got Thibodeau a victory in his first game in Chicago since the Bulls fired him in an acrimonious split in 2015.

“There were far more great times than there were real problem times,” Thibodeau said. “In the end, it didn’t end great, but most of the time things were good. I’m proud of what our team did. I loved being here and that’s how I look at it.”

Gorgui Dieng and Karl-Anthony Towns each scored 16 points, and the Timberwolves snapped a four-game losing streak.

Jimmy Butler led Chicago with 27 points, and Robin Lopez added 14. But the Bulls continued a pattern of letdowns against losing teams, this time falling to one that came in tied for the NBA’s worst record. And, of course, they lost to their former coach.

“There wasn’t really any emotions, it was just about trying to get a win,” Chicago’s Taj Gibson said. “Trying to keep them down. That’s a struggling team.”

That wasn’t what the Timberwolves expected when they hired Thibodeau. After all, the Bulls went 255-139 and made the playoffs in all five of his seasons, including a run to the 2011 Eastern Conference finals with MVP Derrick Rose leading the way.

Big rally

The Timberwolves looked like they were going to get blown out, down 38-22 after the first quarter and trailing by 21 in the second. Instead, they closed the half on a 22-5 run to pull within four.

Minnesota was leading 91-87 in the game’s closing minutes when Butler threw down an alley-oop dunk off a feed from Dwyane Wade in transition and nailed a fadeaway jumper off a steal to tie it with 1:34 remaining.

Wiggins then hit a pullup jumper and LaVine scored on a reverse layup to make it 95-91 with 52 seconds left.