Pistons fall to Wolves in a mostly noncompetitive game

Recap | Box Score114Minnesota Timberwolves

He was also a part of one of the stranger sequences I’ve seen recently in which a Minnesota turnover led to an easy dunk for Greg… which he proceeded to clang hard off iron. That put the ball far behind the Pistons who’d led the break (Monroe, Drummond, and Smith???). So that gave Pekovic on easy dunk on the other end… which he clanged hard off iron. The Pistons actually managed to convert the ensuing fast break.

Josh Smith, SF

29 MIN | 4-14 FG | 5-8 FT | 7 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 4 TO | 13 PTS | -32

Smith shot poorly (Smithly?) and his defense wasn’t exactly impressive. He did have a nice fast break block to clean up his own mistake, though.

Kyle Singler, SF

30 MIN | 3-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | -33

Singler, as has been discovered long ago, is not a highly capable defender at SG. Hence some assertions that the Pistons

look like

they’re tanking. But Singler didn’t do much with his 30 minutes.

Andre Drummond, C

21 MIN | 3-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 7 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 0 TO | 6 PTS | -9

Drummond fouled out in 21 minutes and didn’t have too much of an impact in those minutes. For those hoping for a Pistons victory, that’s unacceptable.

Brandon Jennings, PG

31 MIN | 6-13 FG | 4-8 FT | 5 REB | 5 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 17 PTS | -23

I was conflicted on Jennings as he never looked like he was playing well, so I intended to give him a poor grade. But then I looked at his box score and it was excellent, apart from the fact that he was part of the lineup that let the Wolves put this game out of reach.

Good game anyway, Brandon. Why couldn’t you do this more when a successful season was still a possibility?

Jonas Jerebko, PF

18 MIN | 4-7 FG | 2-4 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 10 PTS | +4

Jerebko did all we could reasonably expect of him and more.

Charlie Villanueva, PF

8 MIN | 1-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | +8

Villanueva played? Are we sure the Pistons aren’t tanking? Anyway, his production was about what it should be for 8 minutes.

Luigi Datome, SF

14 MIN | 0-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | +18

Datome couldn’t hit a shot (his only reason for being one the team), but somehow, his defense was a part of the Pistons storming back. Not that they ever put the game in doubt, but at least they made the final score respectable.

Will Bynum, PG

21 MIN | 6-14 FG | 3-3 FT | 3 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 17 PTS | +12

Bynum was awesome. And he was really fun to watch. And that wasn’t diminished by any concern by the possibility that he may cost the Pistons a loss thanks to the early performance by the starters.

Somehow, Detroit’s PGs (in 53 minutes, so there were 5 minutes of SG there) combined in this game for 34, 8, and 8 with 2 steals to 3 turnovers and rock solid shooting.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, SG

20 MIN | 2-5 FG | 3-3 FT | 4 REB | 1 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 7 PTS | +13

KCP had his first good game in a while. Nothing especially noteworthy, though.

Rodney Stuckey, SG

16 MIN | 1-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -15

Stuckey really helped Detroit lose this one.

John Loyer

Some would give him credit for the Pistons’ comeback. I do too, but I also give him credit for the early going that made that ultimately futile.

The Pistons lost by a reasonable margin to a better team. The rotations and plays looked decent, but not exactly brilliant.

Loyer coached a mediocre game.

Two Things We Saw

Man, that was fast. For the first while, I had to check my browser settings because it looked like the video feed may have been playing at a slightly increased rate. But no, the Pistons and Wolves were just running hard on every early possession. That style of play favors the Wolves.

Minnesota rapidly jumped out to a huge lead early, taking a 20 point edge in the first quarter. That’s really hard to do. They continued to dominate for most of the game, getting a 31 point lead just before the end of the third.The fourth quarter was all Pistons as the Detroit bench hammered the Wolves’ reserves. If I believed in the sports version of “momentum”, I would have thought the Pistons had a legitimate shot when Bynum brought them within 11 with 2:44 remaining.

But in spite of the domination required to close the gap that much, overcoming a double-digit deficit in under 3 minutes is awfully implausible.