Game Report - Wolves v Pistons

[Lipoli390]

I was just browsing through the game thread and noticed someone asking if I was the fan tossed out of the game. Well, I wish I had been tossed just before the start of the 4th quarter. Obviously, this was a terrible loss. Playing Detroit at home, building a double digit lead and then losing is totally unacceptable.

I'll start by saying that the officiating was absolutely horrible and unfairly handed the game to the Pistons. The late 4th quarter offensive foul call on Towns was one of many ridiculous calls against the Wolves with no similarly horrendous calls against the Pistons. Nevertheless, the Wolves still should have won this game in spite of the officiating.

It's not hard to understand why the Wolves lost. Towns played poorly and Wiggins was worse. RoCo was heroic with his clutch three-pointers, but he was careless defensively, making bad decisions and allowing Bullock to score 33 points on 57% shooting. But I don't think this loss can be attributed to any particular players. Instead, this loss ultimately boils down to the following:

1. The fact that the Pistons took 48 threes while the Wolves took 33. Had the Wolves taken just 40 threes the Wolves would have won the game even at their 27% rate for the game. There were at least six possessions where Derrick Rose took a contested two rather than pass to Saric or Towns for what would have been wide open totally uncontested threes. Granted Towns wasn't shooting well tonight, I have no doubt that if given those three opportunities for wide open threes he would have hit at least one. Same for Saric.

2. The fact that the Pistons shot 41% from behind the arc, which reflected the Wolves failure to consistently challenge three-point shots - something we saw all last season.

3. The Wolves isolation offense. Tonight the iso star was Derrick Rose. It could have been Teague or, last season, Butler. It doesn't matter who because that's the offense this team is coached to run. Like most teams, the Pistons spread the floor well and moved the ball beautfully around the perimeter from side to side, facilitating a lot of wide open threes as well as open lanes to the basket. In contrast, the Wolves continued to rely on their PG, in this case Derrick Rose, dribbling in traffic and looking for his shot while ultimately the team repeatedly settled for contested two-pointers. I love Derrick Rose, but the Wolves continue to rely far too heavily on him and his iso style. Whether it's Rose or Teague, that approach ultimately causes this very talented offensive team to underachieve on that end.

The formula for improving the Wolves without any personnel changes is simple:

1. Space the floor much better with players predominantly positioned outside the arc and players moving;

2. Share the ball, moving it quickly and repeatedly around the arc side to side and to cutters;

3. Take more threes; and

4. Defend the three more aggressively

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Disappointing loss, but I have to admit I enjoyed watching it. We're not going to win many games though where our 2 max players go 12-32, and our DPOY candidate looks more like Rose on defense. Wig had terrible shot selection, KAT clearly didn't want to be anywhere near Drummond on the offensive side but just hung around outside the arc, and Roco just doesn't look the same on defense since he hurt his knee (although he doesn't look hurt).


Still, there was much I enjoyed, and most of it was from the second team. I'm not surprised Okogie was +9 in his 31 minutes...he seems to do something noteworthy on every defensive possession, and has a surprising impact on offense even when he goes 0-4. I think he is really going to be good. Saric is so much better than I thought when we traded for him (and I loved the trade!). Is he our only player who knows how to get himself open for the corner 3? I love Tyus Jones...he hustles so much on defense and is so disruptive, and the ball moves beautifully when he is running the point. Not surprised he was +7 despite shooting 0-3. These three players just know how to play winning basketball, and all three need to get regular minutes.


And I'm sorry, but Derrick Rose is really fun to watch. I agree that he over-dribbled last night again, but at least his over-dribbling often turns into points (unlike Teague). And while his defense is sub-par, I concurred with Jim Pete's compliments of his hard work on defense last night.


When Drummond hit that desperation three, I knew it just wasn't our night. And we need RoCo to return to defensive form. But I'm not too disappointed in last night...I still think this is a playoff team.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

I think roco is now realizing he plays in minnesota and not in philly anymore. For some reason, we rarely seem to get those 50/50 calls from the ref. I dont know if its their hatred for thibs, kat, or small markets like gobert insinuated (probably all 3).

But roco was constantly trying to bait the refs into making a call, either an illegal screen on defense or the rip through on his shot. He was on the floor for half those bullock 3's from exaggerating a hit to the face.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

I also dont think kat and wiggs were as bad as people think. Offensively, it wasnt their night. But defensively, they worked. Wiggs was aggressive on defense and kat tried to protect the rim and body drummond up.

We were in great position to win and had momentum going into the 4th. I dont recall who started the 4th, but they let the pistons back in the game. Thibs didnt make any kind of subsstitution or changes untill past the midway point of the 4th, but at that point the pistons shooters were rolling and couldnt miss.

Then instead of getting some energy by playing faster or putting in okogie (cov was brutal this game, but no one will say it). Thibs decides to slow the game down to a halt and let rose 1:4 vs a set offense just waiting for him.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Disappointing loss, but I have to admit I enjoyed watching it. We're not going to win many games though where our 2 max players go 12-32, and our DPOY candidate looks more like Rose on defense. Wig had terrible shot selection, KAT clearly didn't want to be anywhere near Drummond on the offensive side but just hung around outside the arc, and Roco just doesn't look the same on defense since he hurt his knee (although he doesn't look hurt).


Still, there was much I enjoyed, and most of it was from the second team. I'm not surprised Okogie was +9 in his 31 minutes...he seems to do something noteworthy on every defensive possession, and has a surprising impact on offense even when he goes 0-4. I think he is really going to be good. Saric is so much better than I thought when we traded for him (and I loved the trade!). Is he our only player who knows how to get himself open for the corner 3? I love Tyus Jones...he hustles so much on defense and is so disruptive, and the ball moves beautifully when he is running the point. Not surprised he was +7 despite shooting 0-3. These three players just know how to play winning basketball, and all three need to get regular minutes.


And I'm sorry, but Derrick Rose is really fun to watch. I agree that he over-dribbled last night again, but at least his over-dribbling often turns into points (unlike Teague). And while his defense is sub-par, I concurred with Jim Pete's compliments of his hard work on defense last night.


When Drummond hit that desperation three, I knew it just wasn't our night. And we need RoCo to return to defensive form. But I'm not too disappointed in last night...I still think this is a playoff team.

LST, lots of positive comments from you in our losses. Holiday spirit?

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

The Pistons hit at least three ridiculous shots from beyond the arc. One was early in the game, a Luke Kennard off balance 3 that he pretty much thew at the rim and it went in. Then there was the super long Bullock 3 that was well beyond the arc and I think there was even a bit of a contest. And finally there was the Drummond heave from the corner late. And even on a few conventional catch and shoot 3s, they made them despite a nice close out by our guy.

So while I think Thibs' iso-heavy offense is exasperating, ultimately we were really unlucky with all those freakin' shots going in.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

On RoCo.....defensively he's starting to gamble too much. That's my takeaway from last night. He is so obsessed with getting deflections, steals, and tie-ups that he sometimes neglects simply staying glued to his guy and squared up. I think that's how Bullock got open looks a few times. It's great when those gambles lead to a change in possession. It's not so great when it leads to a reach-in foul or open 3.

[Lipoli390]

I agree with CC that KAT and Wiggins weren't bad defensively. And I agree with LST that Rose's overrdribbling is more productive than Teague's. I also agree that he's fun to watch. He's all heart and he's always giving 100% effort. If Teague had started instead of Rose I suspect we would have lost by 10 with no overtime. Also, to be fair, Rose clearly has license to do what he does. Ultimately, he and Teague do what they do because of the system they're playing in.

The bottom line is this. First, the Wolves's offense last night was centered around lots of hotly contested 2-pointers. The Wolves took 15 fewer 3-point shots than Detroit and a smaller percentage of the Wolves 3s were wide open. Second, the Wolves's offense was poorly spaced with players generally packed inside the arc and minimal ball movement while the Detroit offense was beautifully spaced with lots of rapid, crisp ball movement from one side of the court to the other. Of course, the Wolves offense was no different last night from any other game. It's just that the Wolves didn't shoot well enough to overcome the system. If the Wolves had used Detroit's offensive system last night the Wolves would have won in spite of the poor shooting of KAT and Wiggins.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

The other thing is that Detroit's offense generated a lot of corner 3's, which is the shortest distance from beyond the arc. Our offense seems to rely on 3's "above the break", which are all longer 3's. Perhaps we'd be a better 3-point shooting team if we tried to create more corner 3 looks.

I'm so exasperated with the shooting issue....why is it so effing hard for this franchise to defend the 3 and make 3s!?

[Lipoli390]

The Pistons hit at least three ridiculous shots from beyond the arc. One was early in the game, a Luke Kennard off balance 3 that he pretty much thew at the rim and it went in. Then there was the super long Bullock 3 that was well beyond the arc and I think there was even a bit of a contest. And finally there was the Drummond heave from the corner late. And even on a few conventional catch and shoot 3s, they made them despite a nice close out by our guy.

So while I think Thibs' iso-heavy offense is exasperating, ultimately we were really unlucky with all those freakin' shots going in.

Yes, but the Wolves hit some improbably shots too. That's the nature of the game. Shooting comes and goes. Players sometimes miss easy ones and sometimes make improbably shots. Note also that the Pistons also had a lot of really good, uncontested or minimally contested 3 pointers last night. The really good, well-coached teams win games like the one last night on their home floor. We can't win when the opposing team takes 15 more threes than us. And with our poor spacing, it's amazing that Rose did as well as he did going to the hoop. He and others driving the lane had very little space to work.

I agree that RoCo was taking far too many chances on the defensive end. He was also putting the ball on the floor and driving to the hoop too often as well. He's really terrible at scoring on dribble penetration and should rarely if ever try. Even his 3-point shooting suffers when he takes as few as one or two dribbles. He's purely a catch-and-shoot guy on the offensive end. So he needs to play within himself. I still love him and his shooting heroics last night were a treat.