Detroit Pistons vs Minnesota Timberwolves - 3/27/2024

Game Breakdown

Pistons - 91 - 106 L

• Cade, Sasser, Evbuoumwan, Metu, Duren

  • First action of the game is to get Sasser an open C&S 3 at the top of the key, not crazy effective and he takes a mid range pull up

  • OREBs and TOs still showing up early though 

    • EVBUOMWAN has a solid possession on ANT but they can’t get the rebound and immediately turns into a dunk 

    • Tell me if you have heard this before, non Cade/Sasser TOs happening in the 1st quarter 

    • Missed FT checkout (Wiseman) leads to Gobert dunk 

    • Missed FT checkout (after 2 ANT misses) leads to NAW and-one (misses FT)

    • Another Gobert OREB leads directly to NAW 3PM

  • The refusal to stagger the starting backcourt, regardless of who it is, is just something I don’t understand 

    • How do you go into this game and not plan on having 1 of Cade and Sasser in at all times? 

    • And of course, the Pistons go on a run with the bench lineup on the court (keep it within 6 minutes after about 9 minutes on the court which is as much as you could reasonably expect)

    • END OF 3RD quarter it went the way you would expect (16-2 run to end the 3rd, Wolves up 12 going into 4th) 

  • Take 3 point lead with 2:43 in the 2nd Quarter, how do they attack coming ATO

    • Get a stop and Cade floater (up 5)

    • ANT miss but Brown Jr miss (no Cade touch) 

    • McDaniels layup (up 3 - need to respond)

    • Duren missed “floater” (no Cade touch)

    • Reid 3PM (tied - need to respond)

    • Cade forced 3PA (can’t get Duren to set screen where he wanted and got ball late in clock)

    • Reid layup (down 2 with 14 seconds - NEED to respond)

    • Cade maybe? Gets a force 3PA off

    • These are the stretches this team has struggled with ALL year 

  • Back to back TOs to start the 2nd half

  • More and more TOs from the “role players” who simply can’t be making these 

• EVBUOMWAN takes the ANT matchup for Detroit 

  • Holding up decent through the first 4 or 5 minutes 

  • Hits a corner C&S 3, it’s been a really good 1st quarter for him

• CADE has been EXTREMELY aggressive here in the early going 

  • Goodness, has 10 in the first 5 minutes and this is against one of the better perimeter defenders in the league

  • Haha this is just ridiculous right now

  • 10:00 3rd he takes a little 6 footer with his left, I just wonder if the more efficient play is to try and draw a foul in this situation, had defender on his right hip 

  • 6:21 3rd he does use that shot fake to get himself to the line 

  • 4:47 3rd he does another nice job getting to the line

  • We continue to see him be able to get to his spots and really just be about him figuring out the finishing 

  • It was an all around pretty impressive scoring performance from him tonight, even in a loss but especially when you consider the supporting cast and the opponent 

• SASSER has been pretty much a non factor on the offensive end in this early going 

  • Both FGAs so far have been off the dribble

  • Yup, refuses a C&S attempt to side step/step back attempt 

  • Does take the next opportunity but it’s not able to knock it down

  • Dribble up 3PM to take the lead with just under 3 minutes in the 2nd 

• WISEMAN is rightfully getting some love for his overall production but he just makes far too many mistakes on the margins 

  • Offensive fouls, missed box outs, etc. 

• FLYNN bringing some scoring off the bench 

  • Gotten a bucket from all 3 levels

  • Just has some completely unnecessary and unforced errors at times, just has to eliminate these while hitting shots at efficient level which he has done the last 3 games (counting this one)

• METU does some nice things but feel like he never gets the payoff (the result)

  • Got that payoff on the poster dunk in the 3rd though! 

• DUREN turnovers have to be something that is fixed next season

• FOURNIER might actually be the best Weakside off ball rotation defender on the team 

  • He makes a couple really good ones every game 

  • The offense has obviously been a different story

Wolves

• Conley, ANT, McDaniels, Reid, Gobert

  • Wolves offense doesn’t have a lot of flow right now 

    • Missing shots but also some rough passing (some TOs, some just disrupting the flow of the offense) 

    • I know some of the attempts are “open” but there is no flow with the offense which usually does lead to misses 

  • Was a matter of time before they started making 3s

• MCDANIELS on Cade, their broadcast talks about how good he did on Steph in their last game 

  • Insanely impactful player when he’s making C&S 3s

• REID is so skilled beyond just making 3s

  • Puts it on the deck, footwork, finesse finish 

  • Has been awesome scoring the ball

  • Pretty sure every missed 3 was short for him

  • The fact you can run pin downs for him and he can curl and get to the rim is amazing

    • Guys that match with him probably aren’t used to defending this action 

• ANT puts his newfound patience on full display with a multi pivot possession that ends in a fadeaway jumper 

  • Love seeing what he does defensively when he is engaged as well

• CONLEY never disappoints with the right hand floater 

• ANDERSON slow motion euro step is just…..beautiful 

  • He’s led the charge for them here late in the 3rd

• GOBERT has been a monster on the OREBs and even a couple finesse finishes