The Detroit Pistons have one of the league’s elite perimeter defenders in Ausar Thompson, and he played a pivotal role once again on Saturday night.
Without Cade Cunningham or Isaiah Stewart in the lineup, the Detroit Pistons stuck to their roots in what was a stylistically familiar 109-87 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Since Cunningham was unavailable to dish out assists, the Pistons focused on playing stingy defense, crashing the boards and attacking the paint on the other end of the court against Minnesota, and those core tenants won out in the cross-conference clash.
The Pistons, who have a first-round pick swap with the Timberwolves as a result of the Kevin Huerter trade, disrupted an Anthony Edwards-less Minnesota offense all game long, holding the Western Conference squad to just 32% from the field and 21% from behind the arc. In particular, Ausar Thompson had another textbook defensive performance from the point of attack with four steals in the win as Detroit forced 15 total turnovers on the night.
“I thought we did a really good job," Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. "Nothing came easy for them. It felt like most of the shots were contested, the shots that we’ll live with. I thought we communicated well, we were physical. I thought we did a great job defensively overall.”
On the glass, the Pistons outrebounded the Timberwolves by a 14-board margin, and this disparity on the glass helped Detroit generate the extra possessions they needed for the double-digit victory.
From a scoring standpoint, the Pistons spread the ball around and made sure everyone was involved in the win. Tobias Harris got it going for Detroit early on with the team’s first eight points of the game, and the veteran forward finished as the Pistons’ leading scorer with 18 at the final buzzer. Harris hit a pair of big triples with the road squad shooting 38% from long-range.
Although Jalen Duren has typically taken top billing for Detroit’s scoring when Cunningham has been sidelined, the first-time All-Star center had a more reserved double-double tonight with 10 points and 13 rebounds in the contest. Duren continued to show his touch with five assists, and that very same playmaking talent has helped JD become the frontrunner for the league’s Most Improved Player award.
With the fourth-year big man operating in the paint, the Pistons managed a whopping 60-32 edge for interior scoring over the Timberwolves as Detroit overpowered their opponents for a comfortable victory in the tail end of the season.
For the most part, the Pistons were able to spread out playing time across the bench since Detroit had a double-digit lead for much of the contest. Paul Reed, Ron Holland and Kevin Huerter all acquitted themselves well with double-digit efforts in addition to their nightly dose of strong defense.
With only eight games remaining, the Pistons stand at 54-20 and have a puncher’s chance at reaching the 60-win threshold this season. Detroit holds a 4.5 game lead over the Celtics right now with some difficult games remaining on the schedule, so the Pistons haven’t quite locked up the one seed yet, but that may be soon to come.
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