The Minnesota Timberwolves crushed the Dallas Mavericks in Anthony Edwards’ return and behind Ayo Dosunmu’s impressive triple-double. The welcome-back party for Edwards has been short-lived, as he was ruled out for knee injury management and an illness for this Thursday night matchup against the Detroit Pistons. With this missed game, Ant will not be eligible for postseason awards as he will not meet the 65-game requirement. Opposing stars both being dinged by a questionable rule is a bummer for the NBA
as a whole.
The Pistons started off the game playing smash-mouth basketball and using their strength and size to dominate the paint. Jalen Duren was flexing his muscles early on and taking it right at Rudy Gobert for 10 points on 5-6 shooting.
The Timberwolves responded with some hot 3-point shooting and forced some Pistons turnovers to get back into the game. A Kyle Anderson circus tip-in ended the response to an early Detroit lead to take a 31-30 lead at the end of the first. Julius Randle’s three was dropping, and he played well in the first with 10 points and two threes.
The second quarter was all over the place in a back-and-forth affair. Detroit started on a 7-0 run that was immediately answered by a Timberwolves 9-2 run. Terrence Shannon Jr. had a great stretch in the second quarter, getting out in transition and finishing at the rim.
The game remained close until Mike Conley caught fire for a few threes to open up a seven-point advantage. The Pistons closed the gap and were able to tie the game 54-54 at halftime. Mike Conley led the team in scoring with 14, while Jalen Duren was right behind him for the Pistons with 13 of his own.
The Timberwolves came out a bit looser with the basketball in the third after a very clean first half in that area. Early in the quarter, Julius Randle used bully ball And-1s to keep the Wolves offense afloat. The Pistons responded with a few threes to take a slight lead halfway through the quarter. While Detroit’s defensive intensity kicked up, which got the crowd into it, the Timberwolves kept after it.
Bones Hyland showed a little fight (that was slightly less dramatic than the last altercation between these two teams) while Naz Reid took the offensive baton from Julius down the stretch. Minnesota closed the quarter with a one-point advantage in a back-and-forth affair heading into the fourth.
The game stayed close for the first part of the fourth quarter before the Detroit Pistons imposed their physicality on the game. They forced tough half-court possession after tough half-court possession for the Timberwolves offense. Detroit hit some key shots and took control of the game late, going on an 18-3 run and taking a double-digit lead.
Detroit Imposing Physicality
The Pistons’ calling card all season has been their physical play style. They grind you down into dust over the course of a 48-minute game. While the Timberwolves did put up a good fight for much of the game, Detroit squeezed just hard enough to get Minnesota to break.
They tightened things up defensively and worked hard to get good shots on the offensive end against a team lacking scoring firepower. The Timberwolves fought in what was. a very good and close game, but could not come out on top.
Half Court Offense Dries Up
With Anthony Edwards (and Jaden McDaniels, for that matter) out, the half-court offense will always be a question mark. The way that Minnesota has juiced its offense in these situations is with fast-break points and points off turnovers.
They were able to muster a good amount of offense using that method, but when the Pistons tightened up defensively, so did the transition offense for the Wolves. Julius Randle played very well in this one, but they struggled to find consistent half-court offense, which spelled their demise in the fourth quarter.
Mike and TJ Out of the Woodwork
Despite the loss, two unlikely players stepped up and played well to keep this game close. Mike Conley scored 14 points and hit four threes in this one and looked closer to the vintage Mike we all know and love. Even with L, it was nice to see a few drop for him from downtown. Terrence Shannon Jr., who has also been having a difficult season, stepped up as well.
Every time he got the ball, he was launched like a rocket the other direction. He had some nice finishes, including a right-handed lay-in, and I loved his attention to pushing the ball up the court.
Up Next
The Timberwolves are back in action tomorrow night for a road back-to-back. It’s another 6 PM CT start against the Philadelphia 76ers. The game will be on their standard FanDuel Sports North.
