Flip Brings Pistons to Town

Let's take a look at what's going on at the Target Center as the Detroit Pistons are in town to face the Wolves on Rookie Night:

A sellout crowd; Randy Foye Bobbleheads (be among the first 5,000 fans to get yours); Foye and Craig Smith t-shirts; Flip Saunders; Chris Webber's second game in a Pistons jersey, and former Wolf Chauncey Billups' second game back from an injury.

Need a few more reasons to be interested in the 7:00 p.m. contest?

OK.

The Wolves beat the Pistons in overtime at Detroit on Monday afternoon, and have won 10-of-14 games; Minnesota was flat against Atlanta on Wednesday, and there's no way Kevin Garnett will let that happen two games in a row; Detroit had struggled without Billups, losing 7-of-10, but got its point guard (and its swagger) back against Utah on Wednesday; the Pistons cut Rick Rickert in the preseason.

On the Court
Monday's 94-90 Wolves win is certainly fresh in the collective memory of the Pistons. In case you forgot, Foye was outstanding late, and Mark Blount provided the dagger with a corner three-pointer. Billups was chomping at the bit in street clothes, thinking of how much better his team would be with him on the floor later in the week.

"We have a lot more options out of our offense now that I'm back, because I know the offense so well," said Billups. "I feel really good about it."

He also feels pretty good about Webber, one of the better passing big men in basketball, despite his slowed movement in his 13th NBA season.

"It's going to take a little while before we can run everything (with Webber), but there are a lot of simple things that he can run that won't take him to long to catch on to," said Billups. "I'd rather have him be out there with me than anybody else so I can walk him through, direct and orchestrate a little bit to help him out."

That directive came straight from the former Wolves head coach and current Pistons headman Flip Saunders, who said Billups makes Webber's transition easier both offensively and defensively.

"The positive thing is that usually our offense is based on ball movement and player movement," Saunders.

Flip explained that one great thing about Webber's game is his ability as a "late passer," which Saunders defined as follows: "There are a lot of times when people will open up at the rim or past the rim and sometimes you kind of give up on the play thinking you wont get it, but he has a tendency to find those guys late."

Meanwhile, Wolves head coach Dwane Casey is looking for his squad to return to the offensive and defensive consistency showcased as they won seven-of-eight games before Wednesday night's loss.

Stats, Numbers and Stuff
- Minnesota has beaten Detroit in 13 of the past 18 meetings overall to even the all-time series at 17-17 (11-6 at home).
- Ricky Davis led the Wolves with 21 points against the Pistons on Monday. Davis is averaging 19.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 41.5 minutes in his last 11 games.
- Trenton Hassell had a season-high 11 rebounds, including a Ben Wallace-like eight offensive boards on Monday.
- Detroit's Richard Hamilton dropped 32 on Minnesota earlier this week; expect Hamilton's numbers to fall off with Billups back and Webber in the gym.
- Rasheed Wallace leads the Pistons with 8.6 rebounds per game, four fewer than Kevin Garnett (12.6) averages.