ESPN reacts to Timberwolves beat Pistons 106-91 to hit 50-win mark for 5th time in 35 seasons

ESPN reacts to Timberwolves beat Pistons 106-91 to hit 50-win mark for 5th time in 35 seasons

That’s really the issue I I think some guys played really hard um I think they did some positive things they had some stretches where I was very impressed but but really in the third quarter especially the end of the third quarter as soon as Cade went out they went on a

16 to2 run that’s the ball game right there so they they lacked weapons we we knew that going in they they tie a season low with those 91 points on the flip side of that defensively they do a pretty good job against a good offensive team holding the Timberwolves to 106 on

Most nights that gives you a chance Mickey this is a special season for the Timberwolves they are one of the top five teams in the NBA they’re battling OKC and Denver for the best record in the west this is a transformational year for them and they’re doing it all

Without maybe their best big man Carl Anthony Towns how do they do it they pass the ball they’re Exceptional from three-point land uh Nas Reed has stepped in for cat very well and and Edwards who you know we talked before the game we both love his attack

Pistons held him down didn’t matter at all they’ve got plenty of other weapons this is a very good Minnesota team and another statistic that I just didn’t realize they have the best scoring defense in the NBA they they play as a team Conley is Ageless he just plays at

His own pace they’ve got good bench guys just a lot to like about this Minnesota team yeah that’s what they do the fact they held the Pistons in 91 not a great surprise when you consider as you just mentioned Minnesota one of the better defensive teams in the NBA but yeah it

Was not a big night from Anthony Edwards the Pistons is holding just nine points you got to do a double take at the box score because not many nights this season Anthony Edwards has been held in check like that now they they have so many different weapons and the the other

Thing that I like about Edwards is that he’s becoming a two-way player a lot of times young scorers that’s all they do is put up points but the Pistons did a good job job and we we talked about earlier contain contest the Pistons did a really good job contesting as a matter

Of fact you know I I focused on their offensive inefficiencies earlier but I thought it was one of their best games of the season of contesting shot and that’s a good lesson because against the Knicks they were destroyed Beyond The Arc and today they did a much better job

In transition though it’s it’s another concern and that sort of stuff comes when you have unfamiliarity and a lack of chemistry from so many different new players coming in it’s hard to generate those turnovers and get out in the break that’s that’s really one of about seven different things that they could have

Done a little bit better but once again if you’re going to change your roster and play so many guys that that are are new to the organization just trying to figure out the offense a bunch of other guys have spent time on g-league rosters it’s it’s a talent def it more than

Anything else yeah that it was Greg keler called it with George Blaha and he joins us now as we go back to the Target Center in Minnesota as we go Courtside is with Greg actually from his broadcast position above the court here tonight and Greg we were just talking about it

With Tim you hold Anthony Edwards to nine points tonight on most nights that’s going to give you a pretty good shot that’ll be one of the bright spots for the Pistons from a defensive standpoint this evening but a little short as Tim mentioned in the Firepower Department this evening

Yeah I I think Tim is right just not enough weapons right now going against this team playing with a solid purpose and on their home floor I think that I think that you know what the Pistons were trying to do was condense this game

And not let it get too far up in the 100s because they knew they were going to be challenged to keep up with that now Kate Cunningham did a terrific job but Kate Cunningham can’t play the whole game you got to bring him out at some point I thought when they brought him

Out in the first half the guys off the bench did a really nice job hanging in there and staying close but maybe too much to ask them to do it in the second half when the game is really starting to enter you know its most important

Stretch but having said all that boy was it nice to have Kade back out there doing his thing and Minnesota all night long refused to double him so as you can see he’s just working oneon-one and he’s able to read what his Defender does and

For Kade he had to enjoy this because it gets Mighty frustration frustrating when you every night got to face two guys sometimes three guys and then try and figure out how to be offensively productive so he showed you again what he’s capable of doing when you guard him

Straight up you’re not going to win that one-on-one matchup yeah a game high 32 for Kade Cunningham tonight the subject of our GMC Pro Vision uh he didn’t have a lot of assists tonight but who’s he going to pass the ball to and that’s a that’s a valid point you know throughout

The game I I was thinking about the fact that in basketball the point guard and the center are the two most important positions in the game and and when you consider that both Duren and Cade play off each other so well I kept thinking Greg about Jade Ivy because I still have

A lot of confidence in him and and think about him in the future he didn’t play today because of some knee soreness but he really struggled against the Knicks without Cade and without Duran it must have been interesting for Jade iy to sit there and watch how Cade was still able

To pick his spots he read the defense he got wherever he wanted and I think it’s important for all of the young players not just Ivy to be able to watch the way Kade operates it doesn’t matter if it’s a a great defense that he’s going

Against or a weak defense he is very consistent in finding his you know can you talk a little bit about your impression of Kate’s impct on everybody as the leader on this team I think that Kate is is so much stronger this year and he’s able to take

The pounding that he usually will get when he’s handling the basketball he’s able to play right through it it gets him to the free throw line he’s a mid-range guy guy primarily that’s where he wants to attack from and his strength uh with the basketball his upper body

Strength allows him to get to those points uh if you contrast him with uh Jay Navy Jay naivy doesn’t have that kind of strength and he’s not going to be able to play through one-on-one physicality like that he’s more of a a full-court player a guy with speed and quickness and of course

If you can get him slashing then he can have a a good game I will remind you that when these two teams met in Detroit Kate Cunningham didn’t play and Jon iy exploded for 32 points but he did it on the move and that’s where you’re hoping that eventually if Kade and Jaden

Are going to be in the back court together they will be able to help each other one with his speed his his his quickness um and the other with his power and and his ability to to get wherever he wants on the floor in the half court doesn’t need assist doesn’t

Need screens just give him the ball let him go to work especially if he’s being guarded by one guy that’s Kate Cunningham you now Greg we were talking earlier about uh all the Damage Done against the Pistons from Beyond The Arc in New York the other night and a couple

Of games prior to that a pretty good job defensively on the perimeter tonight although Minnesota did pick it up and have a little more success uh from Beyond The Arc in the second half did you see a more concerted effort from the Pistons guarding the perimeter tonight than you had in the previous

Games I think I did there were a couple of times when they try but if you’re a young emerging defense that lacks some Stoppers it’s going to be hard to cover the three-point line and be able to close the paint and then you you talk about the transition game there’s many

Different significant challenges Pistons are too young and and hopefully they’ll develop that I also like the fact that that Chris Finch has decided that we’re GNA go with the jumbo look we’ve got a big Center in Rudy goar we’re gonna play Nas Reed um when Kat get gets back Carl

Anthony towns will be their power forward but I like the traditional look of going with a bigger lineup it works really well for this team yeah they’re a little different uh in that way and Greg you mentioned it towards the end of the broadcast tonight you know Minnesota

Kind of fighting still for that top spot in the west but maybe they don’t want to end up there when it’s all said I I just remember last year the Sacramento Kings had a great year finished in the number three spot and eventually found themselves playing uh

The Golden State Warriors a team that they finished well ahead of in the regular season but in the playoffs with all the experience favoring the Warriors the warriors were able to take that series and they took it by winning a game seven in Sacramento so you have to

Be careful what you ask for Minnesota finishing first in the west would be huge but if they we got to play Los Angeles or Golden State in the first round guys a lot of nervous people in Minneapolis for sure yeah uh it would be a entertaining series though at the very

Least it’s a pretty good Minnesota basketball team but there’s still some things to shake out in the west before we get down to those matchups Greg as always appreciate the time safe travels and we’ll talk to you again on a Friday night from Washington DC all right sounds good you know Monty

Williams did not appreciate apprciate being a part of the Knick’s record setting three-point performance on Monday night but against one of the best three-point shooting teams in the league as we just discussed that danger was clear and present again tonight but the Pistons wouldn’t be a part of it

Clamping down to a certain degree on the defensive perimeter Monty Williams reacting to that and another tough loss for his team as we send you back to Minnesota for his postgame comments presented by Miller Light I mean we we just had a ton of problems scoring the ball tonight I if

You look at the quarter breakdowns that that’s not um the number combination that you want but I think in that segment you’re talking about it was a 10-0 run I think it went from 2 to 12 and we we could never um come back from that we just

Don’t have enough firep power out there to um come back from that kind of deficit and the ball got a bit sticky um I had to call the timeout and remind the guys what was working when we got the ball from side to side even against the

Zone we were getting good shots now we didn’t make them all but we got good shots how did you see Cade settle back into things tonight just didn’t look like he missed really any time off I mean he he knocks some shots down early

Off of our pitch game he and JD had a pretty good uh tandem going where he was hitting JD moving the defense he’d come back and get it and they went underneath and he made him pay um and then attacking the basket something that Kade we talked about in the pregame against

Rudy you can’t shoot floaters or or soft shots so he was doing a good job of getting to the rim but attacking their bigs at The Rim that was something that we talked about um but he’s you know K can score the ball that’s not the issue

Um we got to get the ball moving around the gym so that we can get Other Guys open shots I thought we did we just didn’t knock those shots down tonight Monty to go back to the the lack of Firepower this situation is what it is

You guys have a lot of guys who are new here um some haven’t played much in the NBA so for you kind of like what is the grading curve for a solid performance this was a this is the best one of the best teams in the NBA you guys just went

Against and like I said the situation is what it is what are you looking for to walk away like okay I can take this I can take that from there um I I mean the defense was something that was we can take that that was something that I

Looked at and I thought to myself if you hold hold any team on their home floor lower than the NBA average which is it’s changing now it used to be like 112 but I think it’s like 116 um you’re doing a pretty good job you have to counter that with good

Offense and that’s where I thought the offense put us in a bit of a bind tonight tonight we didn’t have high turnovers but we had high turnover points that put us in a bind um but defensively I feel like we’re scrapping um more and more even with the

New guys and they they still don’t understand x outs on the backside and things like that uh the way we switch but I thought the competitive drive to defend tonight was was at a high level I mean we held uh say we held him but you know when Edwards goes for nine points

In this building that that’s a win and so you can take that um and build on that I thought tosan did a really good job of trying to stay in front of him um but the defense was something that we said we’re going to you know hold on to

We may not have the offensive fir power to um pull away from teams but we can certainly control our Competitive Edge on the defensive end and I think having Jaylen Duran back in the middle helped as well a d that double double for Jaylen 11 points 11 rebounds after missing the previous

Three games with back spasms he was the Pistons Glassman Automotive spark plug tonight good to have him back out yeah as well as he should be and a lot of times especially when big men go out with injuries conditioning becomes an issue not a problem double double he had

Forest an enemy has has been defeated here we go my turn your team has destroyed a tower an ally has been defeated An ally has been Defeated they need a sword our base is under attack done for look up ultimate feel so familiar stick around just in time here we go One of these days I’ll find my old self they need a sword but I’m just lit an ally has been defeated shut down enemy double kill my life reborn for the batt all our base is under attack got knife goes in guts come out First Blood Your tower has been destroyed our base is under attack another Rush L an ally has been Defeated you have defeated an enemy you have been defeated J an enemy has been defeated you have defeated an enemy Rush out an ally has been defeated

ESPN reacts to Timberwolves beat Pistons 106-91 to hit 50-win mark for 5th time in franchise’s 35 seasons