Well, that was ugly. In a season that has included 17 losses in the first 23 games, this was the biggest. The Wolves lost 117-90 to Detroit at Target Center in a game they trailed by just four points with 3 minutes left in the third quarter.
Afterwards the talk was more about attitude and effort than it was x's and o's. Coach Tom Thibodeau called the second half "low energy.'' Ricky Rubio was more direct, mentioning a lack of heart over and over in the locker room after the game.
Here are some final thoughts on tonight's game:
--You usually want to take either the paint or the three-point arc away from a team. Tonight the Wolves did neither. Detroit hit 14 of 29 three-pointers, outscoring the Wolves (3-for-16) 42-9 in that department. The Pistons – led by Andre Drummond's monster 22-point, 22-rebound game – also beat the Wolves up in the paint.
--Afterward Rubio called this the team's rock bottom, at least so far. "It was a two-point game and suddenly it was a 25-point game,'' he said. "And it seems like we didn't care."
--Zach LaVine refused to blame Thibodeau, saying this was on the players. "We're the ones on the court,'' he said. "He puts all the effort in, shows us what to do. But we' re not going out and executing it right. I don't think it's on him. We're the ones playing.''
--Minnesota native Jon Leuer came off the bench to score 17 points, tying his season high, on 5-for-10 shooting.
--Detroit ended the game shooting 50 percent overall, 48.3 percent on three-pointers and 82.6 percent on free throws. Not a bad line.
