Timberwolves bounce back after brawl, pull away from Pistons

Less than four minutes into the second quarter of a game against Detroit that the Timberwolves seemed to be stumbling through half-awake, all hell broke loose.

Turns out it was a before-and-after kind of moment.

“When something like that happens,” Wolves center Rudy Gobert said, “it either makes you or breaks you. It gave us a boost of energy.”

That’s one way to put it after the Wolves started slowly and finished strong in a 123-104 victory Sunday night at Target Center. The game pivoted on a second-quarter melee that resulted in a slew of ejections and technical fouls. And if not suspensions, it will result in substantial fines.

With 8:36 left in the first half and the Wolves down 10, Wolves center Naz Reid was fouled by Pistons forward Ron Holland II. Holland and Reid started talking. Perhaps because of lingering feelings from a play moments earlier, when Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo and Pistons center Isaiah Stewart had gotten into it, DiVincenzo got in between Reid and Holland.

And it was on.

The fight grew, spilling into the front row under one of the baskets, perhaps even shaking up a young fan. Players, coaches, seemingly everyone was involved, though few claimed to have seen specifics after the game was over.

“I plead the fifth,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said.

The crowd roared while Wolves players rallied around assistant coach Pablo Prigioni, who was about to join a progression off the court. When the dust cleared: Detroit’s Stewart, Holland, Marcus Sasser and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff were ejected, as were the Wolves’ DiVincenzo, Reid and Prigioni.

Wolves coach Chris Finch said he could feel it coming. Before that, the game was too physical — lopsided in that regard both in the way Detroit was playing and the way it was being called.

“I thought it was bound to happen,” Finch said.

Bickerstaff, a former Gophers player and Wolves assistant, acknowledged that the way the Pistons play creates a reputation. “You’re going to be tested,” he said. “And guys think that’s what they have to do.”

But, after it was over, this is what the Wolves did: dominate.

Moments after the fracas, the Wolves went to work. Hot from the start, credit Julius Randle (26 points, eight rebounds) and Gobert (19 points, season-high 25 rebounds) with leading the way. Hot late, credit Conley (11 of his 17 points in the second half) and Anthony Edwards (20 of his 25 in the third quarter) for joining in.

The Wolves found their offense and ramped up their defense. The sight of Conley running around the court harassing Malik Beasley was impressive. Beasley (27 points) was hot early, and he let everyone know. He was muted late.

Quite simply, things changed.

“I thought we reacted the way we should,” Conley said. “In a sense, you know, it woke us up out of how we were playing at the moment. I think it gave everybody a little bit of adrenaline. You hate to lose guys in the middle of a game like that. But they turned the game around for us, honestly.”

Edwards — who credited his second half to taking the protective cast off his right hand — put it more simply. “Anytime your teammates, your brothers, get into it with another team, it should always heat you up,” he said.

BOXSCORE: Wolves 123, Detroit 104

NBA standings

It did. Down 14 with just over four minutes left in the first half, the Wolves outscored Detroit 82-49 over the final 28 minutes.

The Pistons had all five starters in double figures but shot just 35.8%. The Wolves were 26-for-49 while scoring 69 second-half points.

It was an important win, a bigger statement for a team still fighting for playoff position. From tête-à-tête to toe-to-toe, the Wolves stood up.

“it was a pressure release for what the game needed,” Finch said. “You don’t want to say it needed that. But with the way the game was being played, it was going to happen.”

Said Bickerstaff: “Obviously things went too far. … But what you see is guys looking out for one another. Guys trying to protect each other."

As Finch said, there are many kinds of toughness.

“I do like the mental response we had,” he said of what happened after the event. “We didn’t lose our minds.”