MEMPHIS, Tenn. – If the Minnesota Timberwolves thought they had knocked the competitive wind out of the Memphis Grizzlies with a 42-point first quarter, they were mistaken.

Despite building a 17-point lead at the end of the opening quarter and extending the advantage to 20 in the third, the Timberwolves had to withstand a determined comeback by an injury-depleted Grizzlies team to win 114-108 Wednesday night at FedExForum.

Zach LaVine scored 28 points to lead the Timberwolves and Karl-Anthony Towns and Ricky Rubio recorded double doubles -- Towns scored 18 points with 10 rebounds and Rubio had 15 points with 11 assists. Andrew Wiggins added 16 points.

"They were shorthanded, but the players (they had) were playing and playing aggressively," Rubio said. "It's sometimes tougher to play with a big lead because you relax . . . after the first quarter, with that big lead, we relaxed a little bit."

LaVine's output included six of the team's 10 3-pointers. The Timberwolves shot 56.3 percent and survived being outrebounded 51-33.

"We stopped making as many shots as we had and they were playing really aggressive and tough and crashing the boards hard," LaVine said of the resiliency shown by the Grizzlies. "We just had to calm down and play the right way and strap it back up on defense."

For the Timberwolves, it was LaVine's offense that sparked the team's early breakaway. He made seven of his first 10 shots and was able to score against Tony Allen, one of the league's top defenders.

"We told Zach that Tony, to me, is one of the best one-on-one defenders," said Minnesota interim coach Sam Mitchell. "He's tough, he's physical and he knows how to play. The officials, because of his reputation, are going to give him some leeway.

The Grizzlies, whose injury list includes starters Marc Gasol (out for the season), Mike Conley and Zach Randolph, were led by Lance Stephenson, who was coming off a right wrist sprain.

Stephenson scored 24 points off the bench and had 11 rebounds. JaMychal Green added 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who scored 70 points in the paint.

Still, the 42-point first quarter was too much for the Grizzlies to overcome. They never led after falling behind three minutes into the game.

"We started too slow and spotted them too many points, gambled too much, left our feet too many times on closeouts and made it easy for them in the first quarter," said Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger. "(But) I'm really, really proud of our guys. We got 70 points in the paint and outscored them, 83-72, in the last three quarters."

Struggling with the rash of late-season injuries, Memphis (39-29) lost for the fifth time in seven games. Minnesota (22-46) won for only the second time in five games.

Trailing 90-78 entering the final quarter, the Grizzlies quickly surrendered the next five points. They cut the margin to 97-87 a few minutes later on a 3-pointer by recently acquired Ray McCallum and battled back to trim the Minnesota advantage to 106-102 on a Matt Barnes fastbreak layup with 1:42 left.

A Jarrel Martin put-back made it 108-104 with 1:12 to go, but the Grizzlies could get no closer in the final minutes.

"We started out slow and that hurt us in the end," Green said. "We couldn't crack that four-point margin. We couldn't get stops when it counted."

After grabbing a 6-2 lead, the Grizzlies were unable to stop a torrid-shooting Timberwolves team led by LaVine. In the opening quarter, LaVine made four of five 3-point attempts and had 14 points for the Timberwolves, who shot 67 percent. Minnesota led 42-25 at the end of the quarter.

In the second quarter, the Timberwolves stretched their lead to 59-40 after a 3-pointer by Wiggins before the Grizzlies rallied behind Stephenson.

Stephenson's driving layup through the heart of the Minnesota defense with 1:31 to go trimmed the advantage to 62-53. His layup off an inbounds pass moments later made it 62-55, and another layup, in the closing seconds, sliced the deficit to two.

Minnesota shot 61 percent in the opening half and led 64-57 at the break. LaVine had 19 first-half points, including five 3-pointers. Stephenson had 17 points in the half, with 14 coming in the second quarter.

The Timberwolves again attempted to put the game away in the third quarter by going up 80-60 early in the period. Memphis battled back and put together an 11-0 run, powered by Green, to pull within 82-73. Green scored the final six during the surge.

NOTES: The Grizzlies signed G Xavier Munford to a 10-day contract. He became the fourth player signed to a 10-day contract in the past six days for the injury-riddled team. Memphis received a second injury exception to make room for him on the roster. ... Timberwolves C Nikola Pekovic missed his 19th straight game with a right ankle injury. ... Entering Wednesday's game, the Grizzlies' magic number for clinching a playoff spot was nine (a combination of nine Memphis wins or nine Utah losses). After Wednesday's game, the Grizzlies had 14 games remaining (seven home, seven road). ... The Timberwolves' bench was outscored 37-12 in Monday night's loss to the Phoenix Suns. Since the Feb. 18 trade deadline, the Timberwolves' bench ranks last in scoring at 25.3 points per game.