SAN ANTONIO -- If there has been a chink in the San Antonio Spurs' formidable armor this season, it's been their occasional inability to play up to their lofty standards in the first halves of games -- especially at home.

But the fact that the Spurs are the second-best team in the NBA's Western Conference at the midway point in their season shows that San Antonio can usually find its stride soon enough to blow past the opposition.

Such was the case Tuesday when the Spurs, riding Kawhi Leonard's 34 points and 29 from LaMarcus Aldridge, shrugged off another ragged start and walked off with a 122-114 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at the AT&T Center.

"Once again, as we have done very often, it was a tale of two halves," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "It's about being physical and smart. We did that in the second half -- we played a great final 24 minutes."

Leonard's rebound and rush down the court for a dunk over two Minnesota defenders with 7:36 to play highlighted a 20-2 run for San Antonio that turned a 90-83 deficit into a 103-92 lead.

Leonard has 12 games of 30 or more points this season and reached that mark in four consecutive contests. He's the first San Antonio player to score 30-plus points in four straight contests since Tim Duncan in January 2004.

Tony Parker added 14 points for San Antonio (32-9) and Patty Mills had 11 points. The Spurs' bench outscored Minnesota's reserves 37-21.

Karl-Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves (14-28) with 27 points and 16 rebounds, while Ricky Rubio added 21 points and 14 assists, Zach LaVine had 18 points, Gorgui Dieng scored 17, Shabazz Muhammad poured in 15 and Andrew Wiggins hit for 10.

Minnesota, as has been the norm for many games this season, utilized only eight players and six of them scored in double figures.

"The first half was pretty good," Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau said. "Then we had a very tough stretch at the end of the third quarter when we didn't score, we didn't get stops and we made a lot of mistakes. They got a quick jump to start the fourth, and we were chasing them the rest of the way."

The first quarter was back-and-forth between the two teams, featured 11 lead changes and ended tied at 30. Towns had 11 points and five rebounds in the quarter and the Spurs balanced his prowess with six points apiece from Leonard, Mills and Manu Ginobili and a five-point edge at the free throw line. Sixteen of San Antonio's 30 points in the first 12 minutes came from its bench players.

The Timberwolves opened up a 51-44 lead on a Towns putback layup at the 6:15 mark of the second quarter and Minnesota kept its lead through the rest of the session. Two free throws by Jonathan Simmons with 1.8 seconds to play in the half brought San Antonio back to within 71-67 at intermission.

The 71 points scored by the Timberwolves in the first half were the second-most surrendered by San Antonio this season and were only 16 points fewer than Minnesota scored the entire game in its last contest, a 98-87 loss to Dallas.

Towns led Minnesota with 17 points in the half while Rubio had 16 (going 10 of 10 from the free throw line) and Muhammad hit for 15. The Timberwolves shot 55.9 percent from the floor and took 30 free throws (making 29) in the first two periods.

Leonard paced the Spurs with 17 points and Aldridge had 15. San Antonio had only two turnovers in the first half and shot 56.1 percent on its field goals.

"It was just one of those weird first halves," Parker said. "We stopped fouling in the second half -- we just have to keep playing and get better and fix the first half."

The Timberwolves ran their lead to as much as eight points in the third quarter and looked to be in a comfortable spot after Towns' 3-pointer at the 1:40 mark had Minnesota up 90-83. But the Spurs woke up in a major way, scoring the final nine points of the quarter including a four-point play by Leonard with 38.6 seconds to play that pushed San Antonio on top at 92-90 heading into the fourth quarter.

A driving layup by David Lee gave the Spurs a 94-90 lead with 10:50 to play in regulation -- their biggest of the game up to that point -- and San Antonio just wore down the Timberwolves for the rest of the game.

"We've got to dig down deep and make sure we don't allow teams to have those runs -- we've got to stop the bleeding early," Towns said. "We'd rather have a papercut than a gash. You have to keep it a papercut for more of the game if you expect to win against great teams."

NOTES: San Antonio beat Minnesota 105-91 on Dec. 6 at the Target Center and now owns a six-game home winning streak against the Timberwolves. The Spurs have defeated the Timberwolves nine straight times dating back to a loss in April 8, 2014 in Minneapolis. ... The Spurs set a Minnesota opponents' record for most rebounds in a non-overtime game with 64 on Feb. 6, 1999. In Tuesday's game, the two teams combined for 73 rebounds. ... The San Antonio bench has now outscored or matched production of the opposing reserves in 28 of its first 40 games. Before Tuesday, the Spurs' reserves were first in the league in assists per game (10.2) and 3-point percentage (.398). ... The Timberwolves are 0-10 this season in games decided by four points or fewer. A year ago, Minnesota finished 9-11 (.450) in that category; it's 53-112 (.321) in the past decade. ... Next up for the Spurs is a home contest Thursday versus Denver, while Minnesota travels to Los Angeles to face the Clippers, also on Thursday.