The Minnesota Timberwolves led by double digits in the fourth quarter but lost in overtime to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night after a late run by Blake Griffin and friends.
The Minnesota Timberwolves entered Wednesday evening’s tilt against Detroit with a 12-4 record at Target Center, and the 14-14 Pistons didn’t figure to be a truly difficult challenger.
And for much of the game, they weren’t. The Wolves surged ahead in the second quarter and achieved multiple double-digit leads, including about a third of the way into the fourth and final frame. They were in the bonus, too, and it seemed as though the home team would slowly build an insurmountable lead.
But the Pistons wouldn’t go away. While the Wolves defense was far from stingy, the visitors made a number of difficult 3-pointers and somehow got 33 points from Reggie Bullock, who knocked down 7-of-12 long-range attempts.
Blake Griffin scored 12 straight points for the Pistons late in the fourth quarter and carried his squad on his back when they needed it most, including a huge 3-pointer from the left corner to tie the game in the final minute.
The Pistons and Wolves traded blows at the end of regulation with the Wolves taking the lead on a Derrick Rose bucket. Then, Reggie Jackson knocked down a corner three with 31.6 seconds left to give Detroit a one-point lead.
After a Rose miss in the paint on the Wolves’ final possession, Dario Saric and Rose poked the ball away from Griffin and Robert Covington corralled the ball in the scramble and hoisted a 3-pointer from the corner that splashed through to give Minnesota two-point lead.
Following a timeout, the Wolves allowed Jackson to get to the rim with just a few seconds remaining, but he missed the layup. With Karl-Anthony Towns pulled towards Jackson, nobody was left to check Andre Drummond. The Pistons big man grabbed the rebound and made a put-back with 0.6 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
The first half of the extra session was even, but the Pistons began to pull away. As Towns made a basket on what would have been a game-tying 3-point play opportunity, he was called for a dubious offensive foul. Instead of tying the game, he was disqualified with six personal fouls and the Pistons got the ball back and eventually put the game away.
Here are three main takeaways from the game.
1. Karl-Anthony Towns’ struggles
Towns struggled mightily in this one, clanking a few 3-pointers before ever attempting a shot in the paint.
After a strong close to the first half, the Wolves failed to get Towns the ball in the paint often enough in the second half, and the All-Star big man missed all seven of his 3-point attempts, including a couple of bad misses near the end of the game.
Towns was also outworked by Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin in transition a few times, which cost the Wolves a few easy buckets.
Despite only grabbing eight rebounds in 41 minutes, Towns had a good effort on the glass and was busy occupying Drummond while his teammates grabbed boards. Nobody on the Wolves had more than eight rebounds but they still out-rebounded the Pistons by a 49-44 margin.
2. 3-point failures
While the Wolves ultimately launched 33 3-pointers — an okay number but still low for an overtime game in the year 2018 — they entered the final frame with only 19 attempts and hoisted up 14 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
The Pistons, meanwhile, are a poor shooting team that wasn’t bashful and was launching 3-pointers form start to finish in this one. Ultimately, they were 20-of-48 (41.7 percent) from beyond the arc while the Wolves fumbled their way to a 9-for-33 (27.3 percent) showing.
At some point, the Wolves will need to address the gap that they’re trying to make up seemingly every night.
3. Defensive back-slide
After a string of fantastic defensive games that dated back to the acquisition of Covington and Saric, the Wolves have given up at least 113 points in four of their last six games and are 1-5 during that stretch.
It’s not clear exactly why the back-slide has occurred, but there have been a handful of absences that have messed with the rotations: Covington and Taj Gibson each missed one game and Jeff Teague has missed the last two.
At any rate, the Wolves need to start playing defense, and isn’t going to get a lot easier as they head back out on the road where they are just 2-12. Minnesota visits the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night with tip-off at 7:30 p.m.