The quick and easy explanation for the Timberwolves' 104-83 loss to the Detroit Pistons Wednesday night at The Palace of Auburn Hills was this: They were due.

The quick and easy rebuttal to that explanation is that the type of team the Wolves want to become simply doesn't let itself be due.

Those teams get beat, certainly, but they usually don't contribute to their own demise as thoroughly as the Wolves did with a flurry of early turnovers, an offense that sputtered and pinged like one of the Motor City's bad offerings and a defense that paid the price for both. The Wolves, in losing for only the third time in 17 games, never gave themselves a chance and suffered their second-fattest defeat of the season.