Podcast: Timberwolves Get Early Warning Ahead of Season Opener in Miami

For most of the preseason, the Minnesota Timberwolves have looked like a deep and fun team, but Wednesday night at Target Center showed them how much work is left before the games count.

Minnesota led the Detroit Pistons 38-29 after the first quarter and then got outscored by 31 points over the last three quarters in a 128-106 loss that left the Wolves at 3-2 in the preseason.

Detroit won the second quarter 36-20 and pulled away, as center Jalen Duren scored 24 points in just 15 minutes and the Pistons won the rebounding battle 45-34.

Guard Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 20 points and forward Jonathan Kuminga added 16 on 5-of-6 shooting, but it was a hard night for guard LaMelo Ball, who finished with three points on 1-of-5 shooting to go with six assists in 18 minutes.

Edwards talked after the game about the rough treatment his new backcourt partner got, calling Ball by his nickname, Dips.

"I mean I like it the physicality, I invite it. We just got to figure out ways to get them off of Dips body. Because it seems like every team we play is going to pick him up full, not let him catch the ball, be super physical with him. So we just have to find ways to get him the ball."

Minnesota started Ball, Edwards, forward Jaden McDaniels, Kuminga and center Rudy Gobert on Wednesday, which matches the group most people expect to open the season.

The front office built it this summer by trading center Naz Reid, a 2033 first-round pick, three first-round pick swaps and three second-round picks to Charlotte for Ball, sending forward Julius Randle to Brooklyn in a three-team trade, re-signing guard Ayo Dosunmu and signing Kuminga after the Atlanta Hawks declined his option.

Head coach Chris Finch has said his gut tells him to play his two star guards mostly together, so the answer has to come with both of them on the floor, through more screens from Gobert or more time with the ball for Edwards.

Guard Donte DiVincenzo is still out after rupturing his right Achilles during last spring's playoffs, and a lack of size has been a problem for this roster in several preseason games, which showed up again when Detroit owned the glass.

The Wolves close the preseason Friday night at the Chicago Bulls and then open the regular season on Wednesday, Oct. 21 at the Miami Heat.

The first week also brings a trip to the Orlando Magic on Friday, Oct. 23 and a home game against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday, Oct. 25.

I am not panicking over one bad preseason night, since this team beat the Knicks by 18 points at Madison Square Garden two days earlier.

Even so, a group that lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the second round last May cannot let teams take Ball out of games this easily.

I like that Edwards went straight to fixing it, and if Minnesota has a plan for that pressure by the time it lands in Miami, I think Wednesday's loss ends up being the most useful game of the preseason.