This was not a game the Detroit Pistons were supposed to win.
The Pistons had lost three straight in demoralizing fashion. They were without their starting front court, as both Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren joined Cade Cunningham and Marvin Bagley III on the bench with injuries.
They were on the second game of a back-to-back, and facing a Timberwolves team that had won four in a row, three of them against good competition.
The Pistons’ only center, Nerlens Noel, has barely played this season but was thrust into the starting lineup to face Rudy Gobert, not the easiest assignment. It didn’t help that the Detroit Pistons went down 10-0 to start the game, and it looked like another blowout was imminent.
But Detroit started to chip away in the second quarter and then pulled away in the third behind some unlikely defensive heroes.
Detroit Pistons: Hamidou Diallo and Nerlens Noel
Let’s start by saying that if there is one team that wishes it could undo a recent transaction, it’s probably the Minnesota Timberwolves, who traded the following package for Rudy Gobert:
- Malik Beasley
- Patrick Beverley
- Leandro Bolmaro
- Walker Kessler (No. 22 pick in 2022 Draft)
- Jarred Vanderbilt
- 2023 first-round pick
- 2025 first-round pick
- 2026 pick swap
- 2027 first-round pick
- 2029 first-round pick
The Timberwolves finished 7th in the Western Conference last season and thought Gobert could be the missing piece to a title run. But so far that has not been the case, as Karl-Anthony Towns went down with injury, Gobert’s numbers have all gone down from last season and the ‘Wolves are just 20-22, barely clinging to the final play-in spot in the West.
To make it worse, the team they traded with, the Utah Jazz, who were supposed to be tanking, are ahead of them in the standings and Walker Kessler looks like Gobert-light on a rookie deal.
The Detroit Pistons elected to go small (didn’t have much choice) against Gobert for most of the second half, defending him with Hamidou Diallo, who is eight inches shorter than Gobert. Diallo not only held his own, but the Pistons actually won the battle of the boards against the much-bigger Timberwolves.
Here is what Dwane Casey had to say about Diallo’s performance after the game:
"““We know how much he can impact a game with his energy and athleticism, but tonight he showed great discipline to play all over the floor…We were asking him to go up against Gobert and play the screen and roll. He did a heck of a job.”"
Diallo fouled out eventually, but before he did, he scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting and added five rebounds while bodying Gobert. I’ve always said, if you can trade away your entire future for a center who can be defended by Hamidou Diallo, you have to do it (Sorry Minnesota).
Diallo has been trending up since seizing a larger role in the rotation, and he’s averaged 11.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game off the bench over his last 10 games.
The Detroit Pistons also dusted off Nerlens Noel, who looked more like his old self last night, blocking four shots in the third quarter and giving Detroit a much-needed boost of defensive energy.
Noel has contributed little this season, and at one point, it looked like the Pistons would look for any way to trade him, to the point that I thought they might have to turn to the dregs of the free-agent heap to find another center.
But if Noel can give the Pistons that type of defense in spurts, then he has value as a backup center, so with all of the injuries to their bigs, Detroit may be best served keeping him around.
It was a quality win for the Pistons, who finally showed some resilience and the type of fight we’ve been looking for consistently this season. Of course, it’s possible that they just own the Timberwolves, who they have beaten for two of their 12 wins this season.