Friday, March 7, 8:00 PM on FxD+, FSN

Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Minnesota Timberwolves visited the Detroit Pistons back in December and gave the Pistons a blueprint on how to build a team around big men. Kevin Love led the Timberwolves with 26 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists. He dominated his matchup with Greg Monroe, out rebounding him by a mark of 16-2.

The Pistons generally win games where they have a decided advantage in the paint and the Timberwolves wanted to make sure that didn't happen. The plan was to make the Pistons take as many shots outside of the paint as possible and it worked. The Pistons were a mess, shooting 38 percent of their outside shots and under 30 percent from behind the arc. In the end, Minnesota won 121-94 and Kevin Love sat out the fourth quarter because of the big lead they had acquired.

Ricky Rubio pitched in with 15 points, four rebounds and nine assists. Kevin Martin tallied 18 points on 5-9 shooting and Nikola Pekovic finished the game with 18 points and five rebounds. The Pistons were led by Brandon Jennings who finished the game with 20 points four rebounds, seven assists and one steal. However, Jennings was 2-7 from behind the arc and his teammates didn't do much better.

Over the last 10 games between these two teams, Minnesota has covered five times and more recently, five out of the last seven. Minnesota has been around .500 against the spread over the last month but have been covering better lately. Detroit is also around .500 over the last month and although they haven't been playing great basketball straight up, they've fared well ATS over the last couple of weeks.

Read more articles by Alan Matthews