LOS ANGELES -- One of Mike Dunleavy's biggest projects during his three seasons as Los Angeles Clippers coach has been turning Chris Kaman into a top NBA center.

So it was fitting on the night Dunleavy got his 500th regular-season victory that Kaman would have one of his greatest games as a pro.

The 7-foot center scored 24 points and set career highs with 23 rebounds and four steals Monday night in a 95-87 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"Defensively, it was probably the best game I've played -- with the steals, the blocks (three) and the rebounds," Kaman said. "I play hard, I play with a lot of energy. Some nights I don't have the energy, and you can obviously tell the nights that I don't. I just try to play hard and go after the rebounds the best I can, and they were coming to me tonight."

It was the second time in Kaman's three-year career he has had at least 20 points and 20 rebounds in the same game. He also did it on Dec. 23 at Charlotte in a 97-88 victory.

"When he did that against Charlotte, they didn't have a whole lot of bigs," Dunleavy said. "They were playing small against us. This game, he had two 7-footers in there in Mark Blount and Kevin Garnett the whole time. He never had a small guy on him.

"He did a great job being physical, creating his own space and being relentless, as far as going after loose balls. He was around the basket, he was huge and just claimed everything. And we needed all 23 of those boards."

The Timberwolves begrudgingly sang Kaman's praises as well.

"He was the story of the night," Ricky Davis said. "We came in expecting him to hit the boards hard, and he killed us. It's tough anytime somebody is playing like that."

Dunleavy became the 25th coach in NBA history with 500 wins, just 11 days after San Antonio's Gregg Popovich joined that elite fraternity -- and three days after Dunleavy got his 100th victory as Clippers coach. His overall record is 14 games under .500. Dunleavy was eight games over when he took the Clippers job.

The Clippers matched last season's win total of 37. Elton Brand had his hands full with Garnett at both ends of the floor, yet managed 14 points and 11 rebounds while limiting Garnett to 13 points and 16 boards.

"They did a great job of double-teaming Kevin and keeping the ball out of his hands," Minnesota coach Dwane Casey said. "Kaman did an excellent job of rebounding and controlling the paint."

Garnett's 20th consecutive double-double extended his club-record streak. After Saturday's loss at Phoenix, he snapped at teammates in the dressing room for clowning around and further vented his frustrations about his teammates' attitude while he spoke with reporters.

Minnesota lost its fifth straight game, matching the team's longest skid this season. Davis led Minnesota with 20 points, all but two of them in the first half. Blount had 18 points for the Timberwolves, who have lost 19 of their last 22 road games and six in succession.

The Clippers won for the seventh time in nine games and took three of the four meetings with the Timberwolves, capturing the season series for the first time since 1995-96.

Los Angeles turned a five-point deficit into an 80-77 lead with a 9-1 spurt that included fast-break dunks by Brand and Kaman. Vladimir Radmanovic capped the rally with his only points of the game, a 3 from the right baseline with 6:53 to play. It gave the Clippers their first lead since early in the second quarter.

Reserve guard Marko Jaric, obtained from the Clippers in the Sam Cassell trade last August, regained the lead for Minnesota with a pair of free throws and a driving layup past Kaman. But Los Angeles responded with a 13-5 run capped by Quinton Ross' layup with 34 seconds left and pulled ahead 93-86.

"They outplayed us in that first half and were more physical than we were," Dunleavy said. "But in the second half our guys rose to that challenge. Our defense kicked in. We did a much better job of executing and we made the big plays down the stretch that we need to make. It was a good test."

The Timberwolves are 7-16 since the multiplayer trade with Boston that brought Davis and three others to Minnesota for Wally Szczerbiak and ex-Clipper Michael Olowokandi.

Notes

• Minnesota G Troy Hudson spent his 30th birthday on the inactive list. The nine-year veteran, who spent two seasons with the Clippers, has missed the last 18 games because of a sore right ankle and is sidelined indefinitely.
• The Timberwolves' 37th loss put them one shy of last season's total with 19 games remaining. Twelve of those defeats have been by four points or fewer.