Detroit Pistons: Positive signs from win over Minnesota

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels (3) shoots past Detroit Pistons forward Hamidou Diallo Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels (3) shoots past Detroit Pistons forward Hamidou Diallo Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
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Detroit Pistons, Hamidou Diallo
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels (3) shoots past Detroit Pistons forward Hamidou Diallo Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Pistons got a big comeback win on the road last night against the Minnesota Timberwolves in one of their best second-half performances of the season.

The Pistons were still shorthanded without Killian Hayes, who was serving the second game of his three-game suspension for punching Moritz Wagner.

The Pistons fell behind big in the 1st quarter and it looked like Minnesota was going to coast to an easy win, but Detroit found life in the second half behind their defense and veteran bench.

The defense is on pace to be the worst in team history, so it was nice to see a better effort on that end, and Dwane Casey may have to continue to lean on some of his veterans to keep that defensive momentum going.

It was only one win against a slumping Timberwolves team, but there were some positive signs that the Detroit Pistons can find new life in the new year.

Detroit Pistons: Signs of life in win over Minnesota

2nd Half Defense

The Pistons fell behind by 18 points early in the game and allowed 39 points in the first quarter, so it looked like we were in store for another lackluster defensive effort.

But the Pistons cranked up the defense in the 3rd quarter behind their veteran bench group and the offense started to feed off the defense, something we’ve not seen a lot of this season.

Coach Casey took notice, saying after the game:

"“A lot of it was about our defense…It’s about the second unit’s character. We have a lot of character guys in the group that hadn’t been getting a lot of run, but they came in and played with pure heart, pure mind and won the game for us.”"

The Pistons held the Timberwolves to just 40 points in the second half, a big change from the norm, as Detroit has mostly gotten killed in the 3rd quarter this season.

The entire second unit was in double digits, and Hamidou Diallo and Marvin Bagley III were huge on the boards. The Pistons’ bench now has the highest offensive rating in the league, though they are still 25th in the league in net rating, so don’t get too excited about the scoring, as the bench is also letting up a ton of points.

But they were able to put the clamps on last night, and hopefully the young Pistons will be inspired by watching guys like Rodney McGruder flying around on defense and this will start a new trend of Detroit getting back to playing Detroit basketball.