Go figure? Wolves beat Pistons by 26 in Detroit
Posted on November 23rd, 2008 – 11:29 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
This is why nobody should bet on sports.
Two nights after looking horrible in the third quarter of a runaway loss to the Celtics at Target Center, the Wolves sauntered — yes, you should have seen them before the game — into the Palace Sunday and thumped the Pistons (the only team that has beaten the Lakers this season, by the way) 106-80.
Who were those guys?
(That applies when asking about either team).
For starters, the Wolves, finally, got some real point-guard play from Randy Foye, who said a new simplified approach to the team’s offense helped produce his 23-point (season high), 14-assist (by four his career high) night that gave his team direction and allowed them for the first time this season to stomp on another double-digit lead and this time build it to as many as 28 late in the game.
Mike Miller’s 9-point, 8-rebound, 7-assist game sort of went unnoticed because of Foye’s play and a Wolves defense that held Rip Hamilton to 2 for 11 shooting, Allen Iverson to 3 for 11, Rasheed Wallace to 3 for 10 and Rodney Stuckey to 0 for 5.
This time, instead of making just two shots in the entire third quarter, as they did Friday, the Wolves used a 17-3 run to late in the quarter to turn an 11-point lead into 25.
“I was happy to see Coach smile,” Foye said.
Foye said he suspected he’d have a good night when every floater he threw up in pre-game warmups came down through the hoop.
“Everything was simplified,” Foye said. “He (Wittman) brought me to the side a couple times and just told me to go. Today, there was just so much energy from everybody, even in the (morning) walk-through.”
You could attribute this victory to Foye, just like you might be tempted to attribute the team’s 1-8 start to him in a young season he which he admits to “struggling.”
“I look back and our record could be so different because we’ve had so many 12-point leads we’ve given away,” he said. “Those first 11 games feel like a whole season already. I think as a team and a unit we’re going to come together and I think we’re going to do some special things together.”
This time, Pistons fans were the ones who left the arena early grumbling. Before they did, they cried out for Chauncey Billups, traded for Iverson on Nov. 3, to return and some guy yelled out in frustration during the second half, “It’s Minnesota, for crying out loud.”
“If we can win here, we can win anywhere,” Foye said.
Randy Wittman admitted the Wolves caught the home team on an “off night”: The Piston hadn’t played since losing at Boston Thursday and that ended a tough six-game stretch where they played four on the West Coast and then beat Cleveland and lost to the Celtics on back-to-back nights.
This was the third consecutive week the Pistons played a 6 p.m. Sunday game. They lost by 12 at home to Boston two weeks ago, got beat by 18 at Phoenix last week. Coach Michael Curry shook things up and cancelled the morning shootaround today, opting instead to hold an abbreviated shootaround after Saturday’s practice.
Didn’t work.
“This tells me we’re not ready to play,” Curry said. “As professionals, we have to get ourselves ready to play whether it’s an early game or a normal 7:30 game.”
Iverson said his team has had “some tough shooting games before, but you wouldn’t expect it tonight against a team that had won only two games.”
18 Responses to "Go figure? Wolves beat Pistons by 26 in Detroit"
That was a great win by the Wolves! Just proves that we’re a better team without McCants! Jerry, have you heard any rumors of us looking to deal him?
They are a better team without McCants but the wins are going to be inconsistent as long as they expect an inconsistent shooter like Foye to provide 20 points a night.
I agree, McCants trade proposals should be explored as i don’t see him here next year. He does not like coming off the bench and i don’t think he really cares about the team all that much.
hopefully the confidence and swagger continues. big fan of KISS–keep it simple stupid. sports are not that complicated, one reason i think the Twins do so well is they stick to the simple basics..throw strikes and catch the ball.
i hope they do well this season, but not to well…we need another mid-level lottery pick this season before we (hopefully) leave the lottey for more than a few years.
The thing with Foye is it was really Wittman’s doing. Jim Peterson made a comment early in the game that Wittman changed the playbook in the morning session.
Wittman did something I didn’t think he would. Instead of getting Foye to play up to the level of the playbook, he brought the playbook down to Foye’s level. Witt’s a student of Saunders’ game, and if you guys remember, Saunders ran a remarkably complex and difficult playbook, and he was able to because he had point guards who could pull it off. Terrell Brandon was a premier point guard, Sam Cassell was a premier point guard. Chauncey Billups was well on his way, and Hudson was too before the injuries. Foye’s not there yet, he may never be, but Witt made a great call, dumbing the offense down and running more of a Princeton offense like most colleges do. It opens the floor up, gets guys running more.
Foye is new at this point guard thing….Telfair and Ollie would be able to run a Sunders level playbook, but that’s over Foye’s head at this point. Good job by Witt to make the adjustment.
The three things I didn’t like about this game: Telfair turned the ball over a lot, Miller still didn’t take enough shots, and Al is getting lazy on the boards (he had like, 2 rebounds until about 7 minutes left in the game). The rest was great.
And I also agree that trading McCants should be explored. He’s a supremely talented player, but he’s starting to look like Ricky Davis….inconsistent, hot-headed, and unable to play withing a team structure. If we can move him for something worthwhile, we should, and then split his minutes between Foye, Brewer and Carney. Rodney should be on the floor more and the backcourt duo of Foye/Telfair seemed to work really well.
[…] On the Wolves – […]
Bryan your posts are always great; the trib should send you season tickets 
Foye showed what I knew he could do. He is a smart basketball player, but like Bryan said he is new to the PG position. Even the smartest guy would have trouble adjusting to the complexity of Saunders playbook (something McHale should have figured out instead of Wittman being on the hotseat figuring it out). Speaking of Wittman - I think he is finally getting it. Obviously this is just one win, but guess what - Love is playing key minutes (sure his shots still suck, but he is a high energy guy that helps), the offense is going through Al in the 4th (should have happened a long time ago), and he finally figured out how Foye can work in this offense.
I also agree about McCants - I am at my wit’s end with that guy. He is too ‘me first’ and takes way too many shots; Miller should get the shot total he gets and it just bugs the heck out of me that Miller plays this awesomely complete game (a near triple double) but gets like 5 shots (i forget the exact total). I am sure some team would be willing to part with a draft pick (maybe an early 2nd) to get some offense off the bench - lots of teams have strong starters but weak benches.
One thing I need more of is Al keeping up the intensity in other parts of his game - defense and rebounding. I get that he works very hard on the offensive part of his game and he plays against guys who are at least his size most of the time and plays hard minutes. But guys like Collins lack the talent and Smith/Gomes/Love lack the size to do what he can, and we need his intensity all over. Guy can block a bajillion shots and rebound the ball with the best of them when he makes the effort, but he needs to do it. If it would help, maybe give him a few minutes more of rest (35 minutes a game instead of 40) to make sure we get a more efficient game out of him. Love and Collins would make a good combination while he sits, then have Al and someone like Smith play at the 4 to compliment his offensive intensity.
I am approaching the next few games with cautious optimism - the team is starting to show what I knew it could do. Go Wolves!
The thing about Miller is that he isn’t a jacker. He’ll only take a shot if its a good shot or the clock is winding down. He prides himself in not taking bad shots.
If he is to be shooting more he has to get more open looks…which he hasn’t really been getting. Rarely has the opposing defenses left him alone long enough to do anything. Regardless when he is running off the screens the help defender has been coming along with him and he has been dishing it off very well, which accounts for his high assist totals and really, is as good as him shooting.
I’ll be the guy on the other side of the fence on McCants. I like his ability to create shots for himself. No other player on the roster seems able to be able to do that aside from Big Al…certainly not any of our wings. A player like that is necessary on any roster. He just really needs to become more consistent at it and the complaints would go away. Secondly, he seems to be the only wing who can get to the rim…which he really needs to do more to earn his minutes…for every jump shot he takes, he should be driving it to the rack twice.
Another thing I noticed was that the Pistons were not collapsing on Big Al as much as other teams have…and when people do we’ll need guys to be able to hit perimeter jump shots and outside of Miller, McCants is our best shooter.
Good game though.
Hahaha, anybody else notice that all the fouls Collins drew were because of either being completely clumsy or slow ?
The one on the pick n roll, when the pass comes and he was suppose to be rolling he was 6 steps away from the pass ! Then he got a pity call from the refs because they are thinking, “No one could be that slow…must’ve been a foul”
Hahahaha.
Bryan you had me until you had THud and premier point guard in the same sentence…hahahaha.
Hudson WAS on his way actually. His first year with us he averaged 14-6, which was actually better than either year Billups had with us. And Troy absolutely lit up the Lakers in the playoffs that year, averaging 24ppg over 6 games. What did him in wasn’t a lack of ability, but injuries. He had a string of leg injuries the year Cassell came in that killed his quickness and ne never recovered.
Weird…less posts after a win then there were after the losses.
I guess where there is less to complain about there is less to say ? Hmmm.
Welcome back Arenel…I assumed you recreated yourself as Bryan to save face with how bad the wolves had been playing before last nights game……..
Sorry I had a couple of days off, and I come back to see the Wolves win a game they shouldn’t have had a shot at, and have 8 losses to teams that they shouldn’t have, and think to myself… NOT AN EQUAL TRADE!
Foye had a great game. Willie Burton scored 50 points in a game once too.
What matters most is that this team is inconsistant which mirrors their head coach and his inability to create a lineup, and have a steady rotation. He is a disease and Minnesota needs to be cured!
If this team were 8-4 I might turn this down a little, but they aren’t even 4 and 8!
How much time do we need before it’s enough time to see that Wittman is a failure?
McCants - trade? Who would take him, and what would we get?
Is Foye or Telfair our starting PG? Is McCants going to get 22-25 minutes a game consistantly?
Can Al Jefferson pass the ball?
Mike Miller needs a haircut, and a shot of testosterone… I want to see him with 20 a night.
BC - I think 9 - 8 - 7 or thereabouts a game is way better than 20 PPG a night. He shoots when necessary aka the Bizarro World-McCants.
When running off of screens and catching the ball he gets either one or both defenders coming for him…he has been getting others easy looks after good passes aka the Bizarro World-Big Al !
Anyone who expects more out of him is crazy…this is basically what he has done his whole career.
Nice Willie Burton reference! Was that also the game that he hit 7 or 8 three pointers? The line was moved in that season and I think that it was Fred Hickman or Vince Cellini on CNN Sports that said, “Willie Burton hit 8 three pointers…the line is too close”. That was funny, but of course I still love Willie.
Willie then made the mistake of changing his game from a slasher that drew a lot of fouls to a three point mad bomber. It obviously didn’t work out to well for him.
