You knew Minnesota, or any NBA team would eventually win a road game, but who was predicting the T-Wolves blowing out the Pistons at the Palace by 26? {box score}

Props to Minnesota for coming in and not playing like a 2-9 ball club. No props for the Pistons for playing like a 2-9 ball club.

This was just a horrible game. I’m not even sure where to start. How about Antonio McDyess coming back for a silver lining? Even his presence wouldn’t have helped.

Defense was non existent and we couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn on offense. Thirty-seven percent shooting isn’t going to win many games. The backcourt of Rip and Iverson was particularly offensive missing 17 of the 22 shots took combing for 16 points.  Rodney Stuckey continues to struggle going 0/5 from the field.

“I stunk up the gym tonight,” said Iverson -espn

Rasheed Wallace, who’s been a dead eye lately,  was off shooting 3/10 for 7 points. Picking up a technical couldn’t even elevate Rasheed’s play.

There were 2.5 Pistons who played decent.  Tayshaun Prince scored 20 on 8/13 shooting.  Jason Maxiell was in attack mode grabbing 8 boards and scoring 12.

Will Bynum is the .5 because even though he played well scoring 7 and dishing 6 (2 steals) it was all in the fourth quarter when the game the game was already out of hand.  With the way Rip/AI/Stuck were playing Will should have gotten some run a lot sooner.

Some guy named Craig Smith scored 16 points and grabbed 9 boards for the TimberCeltics.  Randy Foye scored 23 and had a career high 14 assists (Minny had 32 team assists), and Ryan Gomes pitched in 20 points.

GAME NOTES: The Wolves connected on 7/11 from beyond the arc … The Pistons are 0-3 on Sundays this season, losing those games by an average of 18.7 points … only 34 first half points for Detroit … Pistons’ worst loss (26 points) ever to Minnesota …

The Pistons (8-4) will be hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves (2-9) Tip off is 6:00 pm est from the Palace of Auburn Hills and will be televised locally on Fox Sports Detroit.

T-Wolves’ Snapshot
Road record: 0-5
Vs. East: 1-1
Last game: 11/21 (Fri) L 95-78 Vs. Celtics
Last 10: 1-9
Injuries: Rashad McCants (back spasms) and Kevin Ollie (calf) are doubtful

After the drubbing in Boston the Pistons have to be glad to be home.  Tonight marks the start of a four game home stand (matching our total number of home games to date) that will carry the Pistons through November.

Minnesota is a team we can truly use to feel better about ourselves again if we play up to our ability.  The Wolves have started off the season 2-9 and have yet to win a road game.

This is the first meeting with the Wolves, so let’s take a peek at what’s changed since we seen them last:

There was the big draft night deal with Memphis where the Timberwolves received the draft rights of Kevin Love, Brian Cardinal, Jason Collins and Mike Miller. In exchange, the Grizzlies received O.J. Mayo, Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner.

The T-Wolves also picked up Philadelphia 76ers forwards Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth and a future No. 1 pick in exchange for a $2.8 million trade exception.

Two more additions the Wolves made were a new secondary logo (that’s better than their main logo actually), and some new on court duds.

ALSO OF NOTE: Walter Herrmann is questionable after suffering a concussion vs. Boston … Al Jefferson is averaging 22.6 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 1.6 bpg … Canis Hoopus preview … Pistons have won the last 3 against the Wolves … Jason Maxiell, along with Kwame Brown, will deliver fully prepared Thanksgiving dinners to five families in Pontiac on Monday …

[Box score] With this win the Pistons clinch home court advantage in the NBA Finals should they just happen to find themselves there.

Flip Saunders continued to give his starters sparse minutes to stay sharp and then letting the bench fill in the rest. The bench scored 55 in route to handing the Timberwolves their 60th loss of the season.

Jarvis Hayes led all Piston’s scoring with 20 points on 7/12 shooting. Lindsey Hunter also looked good off the Pistons bench being one of three from the Zoo Crew (is he a card carrying member of the Crew?) to score 9 points. Lindsey did his damage in 9 second quarter minutes.

You know the regular season is coming to a close when the refs let ‘Sheed (5 blocks) get away with verbiage in the YouTube below. Ahh, but Rasheed deserved it. He’s been a reactively muffled Sheed this season, he’s no Kobe Bryant after all.

The Pistons (57-23) will be hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves (21-59) Tip off is 7:30 pm est from the Palace of Auburn Hills and will be televised locally on FSN Detroit.

T-Wolves’ Snapshot
Road record: 7-33
Last game: 4/12 (Sat) W 114-105 @ Grizzlies
Last 10: 3-7
Last meeting with Detroit: Apr. 2nd - Pistons (94) @ T-Wolves (90)

In the latest edition of “get on with the playoffs already” the Pistons will play host to the Timberwolves to complete the two team’s season series with the Pistons up 1-0.

A win tonight (or Wednesday) will clinch home court advantage in the NBA Finals should the Pistons get there.

Chauncey sat out of practice yesterday with general soreness. Flip Saunders has said he’ll sit one starter tonight and you’d have to think obvious choice would be Big Shot. As Keith Langlois said in his Pistons.com preview, it’ll give the Pistons another chance to gauge Lindsey Hunter’s playoff readiness. It’ll also give Rodney Stuckey a chance to best his single game scoring high of 27 that he set thirteen days ago against these Timberwolves.

Also, if you haven’t heard…we’ve got the Sixers in round one.

[Box score] With virtually nothing hanging in the balance Flip Saunders gave three of his starters front row seats to watch the “Zoo Crew”, with help from Tayshaun (15 pts, 5 rbs, 6 ast) and Dice (10 boards), snag a come-from-behind win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The original Mr. Big Shot was in street clothes, along with Rip Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace, so Rodney Stuckey filled in doing his best Chuancey impression hitting a big jumper with :45 seconds to go helping the Pistons get their 53rd win on the season as well as establishing a new game high (27) for himself.

“This was good for us,” Stuckey said. “It gives the coaches confidence in us and it gives the vets confidence in us, which they already had. But we showed them that we can come out, play hard, play together and do what we have to do to win games.” - Detroit News

With an unfamiliar mix starting the game (Stuckey, Jarvis, and Theo) it took the ‘Stonz a minute to find each other on the court. The Wolves jumped out to a 21 point lead at one point in the first half but with a 14-0 run to end the 2nd quarter the Pistons were down just 5 (44-49) going into the break.

The Pistons got nice contributions in the first half from guys that usually don’t see much action. Walter Herrmann was the Pistons leading scorer at the half with 9 points and finished the game with 11 points. Cheikh Samb saw his first run since he played back-to-back games in Novemeber before heading down to Ft. Wayne. In Cheikh’s five and a half minutes of work he scored 4 going 2/2 from the field displaying that soft shooters touch that’s impressed me form the start. Samb also pulled down 3 boards.

Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell also did their things combining for 10 points, 15 boards, 4 blocks and 2 steals.

Flip used all 12 players available to him and all scored with the exception of Lindsey Hunter.

Stuckey and Tayshaun continued mount Detroit’s comeback effort through the third quarter. The Pistons weren’t able to take their first lead of the game though until 4:10 left to play in the 4th when they went up 84-83.

Stuckey did the bulk of his damage in the 4th scoring 12 points. Rodney was also very Chauncey-esque in drawing fouls and making the opposition pay at the stripe converting on 12 of 13 free throws.

Gotta feel for Randy Wittman’s young T-Wolve’s squad. They played hard but crucial mistakes doomed them. They’ve had some big upset wins this season but this loss puts them at 15 total when leading or tied after three quarters which just so happens to lead the league.

ALSO SEE:

• Star Tribune: Detroit’s bit players upstage Wolves
• Detroit Bad Boys: In which Kevin infiltrates the Target Center

The Pistons (52-21) will be in Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves (19-53) Tip off is 8:00 pm est from the Target Center and will be televised locally on TV20 Detroit.

T-Wolves’ Snapshot
Home record: 14-23
Last game: 3/30 (Sun) W 103-110 vs. Jazz
Last 10: 5-5
Injuries: Sebastian Telfair - ankle sprain

The Pistons have had this game circled on the calender as a potential Finals matchup…of course that’s an April Fool’s rib. I’m not really going to take shots at the rebuilding Wolves. KG’s gone, there’s no reason pile on Minnesota. They’ve actually got some nice young pieces including Al Jefferson who’s averaging 21 points and 11 boards per.

The Wolves were actually able to something this past Sunday the Pistons have not been able to do in years, and that’s beat Utah. In fact they’ve done it twice this season. Sunday’s win was particularly impressive because the Jazz are still in the thick of that Western Conference playoff scramble.

Flip Saunders has come out and said his bench is going to see extended minutes in the remaining games that are not against playoff teams. So, tonight’s game, our first of the season vs. Minnesota, is right up that ally. Bring on the “Zoo Crew”!

Krista Jahnke of the Free Press says to expect not to see Rip Hamilton who did not practice yesterday dealing with his sore hip. One starter who’ll surely be in the lineup is Tayshaun Prince who has an active game streak going (most consecutive starts), although Tay says it’s not about the streak:

“What’s important to me is that I go out and play every game to help my team win,” Prince said. “It’s not about trying to set a record or do anything like that.”

NOTES: The Pistons are a 7 point favorite tonight…Juan Dixon did practice Monday and will be available for tonight’s game…Theo Ratliff will be facing the Timberwolves for the first times since being bought out by the team on February 29th. Theo joins Chauncey Billups and Flip Saunders as former Wolves on the ‘Stonz roster…

I always liked Theo. Hopefully he’s got some game left for the post season and I hope the Palace still has the rattle snake drop! Also, the Clippers, after buying out Sam Cassell, are going to pick up Flip Murray.

LOS ANGELES — It looks like the Pistons will indeed fill their 15th roster spot with a familiar face.

Only it won’t be Dale Davis.

The Minnesota Timberwolves placed veteran center Theo Ratliff on waivers Thursday night after agreeing to a buyout settlement on the remainder of his $11.6 million contract.

If Ratliff clears waivers in the next 48 hours — which is almost a given with his salary — he will sign with the Pistons for the prorated veteran’s minimum ($1.3 million).

Ratliff, 34, was drafted by the Pistons in 1995. He only has played 12 games the last two years, but according to all reports, he is healthy again. After missing most of the season with a bulging disc in his back, Ratliff has played in the previous 10 games with the Timberwolves, averaging 6.3 points and 3.9 rebounds. (Detroit News)