Wolves Dropped by Detroit

On Easter Sunday, Wolves advance scout Brent Haskins was in Washington D.C. analyzing the Detroit Pistons, who were in the nation's capital visiting the Wizards. Haskins headed to Detroit on the following eve, preparing a highly-detailed report on how to defend Richard Hamilton coming off double screens, how to close on Rasheed Wallace on top-of-the-key threes and how to keep Chauncey Billups from splitting the defense on high pick and rolls.

The thing was, none of those Pistons were in uniform as the Wolves aimed for their fifth-straight home win Tuesday night at Target Center. Instead, head coach Flip Saunders opted to rest his three stars, content with Detroit's No. 2 seed in the East.

How did that affect the way Wolves players used Haskins's report? Entirely? Sure, the Pistons might run most of the same sets, but when the two-guard coming off a double screen is Rodney Stuckey instead of Hamilton, things just aren't the same. But after Minnesota jumped up to a big early lead, it allowed the newly youthful Pistons to scratch and claw their way back into the game.

The point guard who made two big plays in the final minute to give Detroit its first lead was named Stuckey, not Billups, enough to push Detroit to a 94-90 victory. Stuckey finished with a game-high 27 points, including 12-of-13 free throws, while Al Jefferson led the Wolves with 26 points and seven boards.

After the game, we decided to go right to the source to figure out how different things were from what was laid out in the scouting report, and what remained true to form:

Brent Haskins Postgame Audio

We'll have much more with Haskins, one of the NBA's best scouts, later in the week as we examine exactly what goes into the comprehensive reports he prepares for Minnesota's coaches and players.

On this (snowy) April night, the Wolves now head straight to the airport headed for Salt Lake City, where they'll face the Jazz on Wednesday evening for the second time in four days.