Forgotten men light up the Pistons

AUBURN HILLS, MICH. - Six days after the NBA's trade deadline, the Timberwolves showcased both Jonny Flynn and Anthony Randolph -- two previously forgotten men -- in a 116-105 victory at Detroit on Wednesday night.

Of course, Randolph arrived in that big three-way Carmelo Anthony trade two days before the deadline, and Flynn stayed despite all the rumblings that he might go.

And on Wednesday, both played pivotal, encouraging, sometimes almost even electrifying roles off the bench on a night when the Wolves' reserves outscored the Pistons' bench 61-34.

Flynn had a career-high 10 assists before halftime and finished with 14. He played the entire second and fourth quarters, distributing the ball both righthanded and lefthanded with aplomb.

"You know, I can't throw the ball to myself," he said. "My teammates hit a lot of tough shots that might look easy. They played a good game. Reflective of that, I played a good game. That was fun. It felt like back home, getting up and down, playing freely, everybody getting involved, everybody having a good game."

Randolph played 24 minutes in his fourth game as a Timberwolf and trespassed into Kevin Love territory with a double-double of his own, 19 points and 10 rebounds. Love delivered his ninth 20-point, 20-rebound game this season.

Add rookie Lazar Hayward's career-high 16 points, Anthony Tolliver's 30 minutes of defense and starting point guard Luke Ridnour's 5-for-5 shooting night, and the Wolves had more story lines to gab about than time to do so as they headed for a bus and a flight to Philadelphia.

"Like I told A.T.," Love said, referring to Tolliver, "when we move the ball and we play together, everybody gets a little piece of chicken."

That they did, against a veteran Pistons team seemingly in disarray.

The Wolves allowed the Pistons to shoot 53 percent and score 61 points in the first half, yet they still led 63-61 when coach Kurt Rambis came into the locker room hot.

"Kurt kind of ripped us," Flynn said.

So the Wolves went forth in the second half and held the Pistons to 33 percent shooting and 44 points while Rambis relied greatly on reserves Flynn, Hayward and Randolph to bring home the season's 15th victory -- as many as the team reached all last season -- while starter Michael Beasley sat down the stretch.

"Coach found a unit he liked there," Love said. "We were getting [defensive] stops. That's the biggest thing."

Rambis called his team's point-guard play "by far the best collective game" of the season.

"Jonny just looked comfortable," Love said. "He still doesn't look like Jonny from last year. He's still a half-step slow, and he's still not 100 percent yet. He really looked good tonight. If he can look like that and get his rhythm back, he'll be a very good player in this league."

Flynn credited part of his night to the guy getting dressed at the locker stall to the left of his: Randolph, a forward who pushed the ball Wednesday night a time or two as if he were auditioning for Flynn's point-guard job.

"You can't have a 6-11 guy beat you down the court," Flynn said.

Randolph said he tugged on his jersey a few times during the first half, a signal to the bench that he was winded and ready to come out of the game after barely playing for the Knicks the past three months.

"Second half, I got my second wind," Randolph said. "It was just fun being out. That's the way I play. If we got, we'll push it. Everybody eats, and we're going to have a good time doing it and we're going to win some games."