The NBA is historically unkind to rookie point guards. In Killian Hayes’ case, unkind doesn’t quite do his first night out justice. Downright cruel is what it was.
Things were going pretty well for him through three quarters. His first seven NBA points came amid a 12-0 Pistons run after Minnesota – which trailed 14-2 to start the game and never led in the first half – had pulled even in the third quarter. The Pistons still led by four midway through the fourth quarter when what looked like two simple Hayes-to-Blake Griffin entry passes at the top of a Minnesota zone defense used to great effect by the Timberwolves somehow went awry.
Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio, who’s picked pockets around the globe for years since his days as the teen wunderkind of the Spanish national team, batted both passes away and each time it resulted in an uncontested breakaway layup for a teammate to tie the game at 95 with five minutes to play.
“It gave them rhythm to come back in the game,” Hayes said after the 111-101 Pistons loss – a game they led for 90-plus percent of the night and never trailed until there was less than four minutes to go. “That was a tough one.��
The Pistons righted themselves and went back and forth, taking the lead on a Josh Jackson runner with about two minutes to play. But consecutive triples from D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley put Minnesota ahead by five and the Timberwolves closed the game on an 11-0 run.
Dwane Casey has talked since training camp’s first day that there would be growing pains for Hayes and it didn’t take long for the rookie to experience the first educational pangs.
What do you tell the 19-year-old who only discovered which NBA uniform he’d be wearing a little over a month ago and found himself an opening-night starter?
“Just to hang in there,” Casey said after Hayes wound up committing three of his four turnovers in the fourth quarter. “Rubio is one of the clever steal guards in the league. He’s faking, faking, faking. You’ve got to throw it to the hand or – if you don’t like it – don’t force it there.”
There were plenty of takeaways from the opener to give the Pistons – with 11 new players and young ones in key positions – optimism for what comes next. But there were a few glaring statistics that were too much to overcome, including a whopping free-throw disparity and a miserable 3-point experience.
Minnesota outscored the Pistons 24-3 at the foul line on a 28-8 opportunity advantage and the Pistons – after knocking down 4 of 6 from the 3-point arc in a 34-point first quarter – made just 4 of 29 the rest of the way. Svi Mykahiliuk went 1 of 8, Jeramy Grant 1 of 5, Blake Griffin 0 of 5.
“We shot 22.9 from three,” Casey said. “I thought that was our Achilles heel against the zone. And we gave them 28 free throws. That’s a big discrepancy as far as the free throws.”
Minnesota also held a 16-8 edge in second-chance points on a 12-7 offensive rebounding advantage and while the Timberwolves also weren’t very good from the 3-point arc – 11 of 41, 26.8 percent – they were just enough better than the Pistons to matter.
Jackson led the Pistons with 19 off the bench and finished the game in Delon Wright’s spot with the other starters, the same four – Griffin, Grant, Wright and Mason Plumlee – who started all four preseason games. Jackson hit 3 of 7 triples – the only Pistons player with more than one made three – and also contributed six boards, two assists and a steal.
One place Jackson wasn’t pleased to be a contributor was in turnovers. He had two. The Pistons, who averaged 21.5 in preseason, committed only five in Wednesday’s first half but 10 in the second. The 15 wasn’t hideous, but when they came stung.
“Absolutely,” Jackson said. “That’s part of what we talked about before the game. Again at halftime, Coach gave us a compliment. And then, toward the end, we kind of just lost it. It’s something we’ve got to watch and learn from and come back and get better. But, yeah, it sucks.”
“I think it was carelessness. Soft passes,” Casey said. “Rubio being clever. Understand what our options were in transition a couple of times. It wasn’t anything the zone was doing; it was more self-inflicted. I think we had 10 in the second half, which was the back-breaker.”
Casey saw Hayes bounce back from a seven-turnover debut in the preseason without any lingering impact and expects his rookie, who has three years of European professional play on his resume, to respond positively to what could seem a traumatic opening night.
“Those are things he’ll learn from,” Casey said. “He’s a smart kid. I’m not worried about him whatsoever. It just happened at a tough time. He’ll learn. That’s why he’s out there. That’s what this is for.”