AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- The Detroit Pistons are building their franchise around a talented frontcourt. On Tuesday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves gave them some tips on how thats done. Kevin Love had 26 points and 16 rebounds, while Corey Brewer and Nikola Pekovic combined for 29 points as the Timberwolves routed the Pistons 121-94. The Timberwolves didnt dominate inside, matching Detroits 44 points in the paint, but the Pistons struggle to win games if they dont have a major advantage in the post. "We were trying to make them take outside shots," Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman said. "They made a lot in the first quarter, but our whole point is transition defence, getting back and trying not to give them anything near the basket." As it often does, forcing the Pistons to shoot jumpers turned their offence into chaos. Detroit hit just 38 per cent of its outside shots, and 29 per cent from 3-point range. In the meantime, the Timberwolves were shooting almost 50 per cent from 3-point range and took 33 free throws to Detroits 16. "They are such a hard team to defend, because they can score in so many ways," Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks said. "Once they get scoring, they almost never stop, so you have to keep scoring with them. We had a couple stretches where we either turned the ball over or missed a few shots in a row, and that let them get away from us." Love only played 30 minutes, sitting out the fourth quarter with the big lead. Detroit was unable to stop him inside, outside or on the break. Several of his seven assists came on his trademark 70-foot outlet passes off missed shots. "Hes a unique player, because he can sit down on the block and score against you, and then he can step out and hit 3-pointers," Cheeks said. "On the other end, hes grabbing rebounds and hitting those passes over the top on the break. He hit a few of those against us, and thats an easy basket." Love missed Minnesotas loss to Miami on Dec. 7 to attend the funeral of his grandmother. He had "RIP Grandma Carol" written on his shoes Tuesday, and said he was playing with a little extra incentive. "Shes supported me since I was a baby, so I wanted to make sure and do something special for her tonight," he said. Kevin Martin added 18 points for Minnesota, which finished with six players in double figures. "We did a great job of pushing the ball," Minnesota guard Ricky Rubio said. "We had fun out there, and we were aggressive. That got us to the line, and then Kevin (Love) just does everything for us." Brandon Jennings had 20 points for Detroit, but Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond were held to a combined total of 18 points and 10 rebounds. "They had won four of their last five games, so we knew we had to jump on them early and not let up," Love said. "We had a big run and then kept the game in double digits. That really shows our leadership and maturity throughout our lineup." The Pistons have relied heavily on their frontcourt this season, but didnt have the advantage in that matchup against Minnesota. Love, Nikola and Brewer had 37 points in the first half, seven more than Detroits Drummond, Josh Smith and Monroe. The Timberwolves had a 28-26 edge on points in the paint, usually Detroits biggest strength, and made 17 free throws to just one for Detroit. "Im not going to complain about the free throws, because thats part of the game," Cheeks said. "They were more aggressive than we were, so they got to the line." That was good enough to give the Timberwolves a 64-51 halftime lead, even though both teams had shot just over 52 per cent from the field. Detroit trailed by as many as 17 points in the third, but going to a zone defence helped them cut the margin to 86-75 late in the quarter. Martin hit two 3-pointers to make it a 17-point lead, and Minnesota was up 96-77 going into the fourth quarter. With a fourth game in five nights coming Wednesday in New Orleans, Cheeks conceded early in the final quarter, emptying his bench as Detroit fell farther behind. "We have to forget this and get ready to play tomorrow," rookie Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said. "They just spread us on defence by hitting 3s, and then they threw the ball inside for easy baskets. Its tough to stop that." NOTES: Due to injuries, the game was Loves first at the Palace since the 2010-11 season. ... Chauncey Billups of the Pistons played for the first time since Nov. 12. He had missed 14 games with knee tendinitis. He played 17 minutes and despite obvious rust on his jumper, finished with seven points and five assists. ... Caldwell-Pope finished with a career-high 16 points, while fellow rookie Tony Mitchell hit the first 3-pointer of his career at the final horn. 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It turns out screaming something vulgar at professional athletes is therapeutic for Kunis.DENVER - Less than a week removed from a 51-point coming out party, Terrence Ross was at it again. Ross had 16 points midway through Fridays game in Denver, connecting on six of his seven field goal attempts, none more memorable than his final bucket of the half. The Raptors guard picked off a pass from Kenneth Faried - one of the Nuggets 26 turnovers - and proceeded to go the length of the floor before throwing down one of the more emphatic one-handed dunks youll ever see directly over the defending Manimal. "I remember I had the ball, (Faried) had sprinted all the way down into the paint," Ross recalled. "So I knew he was kind of at a disadvantage and couldnt jump as high. Im coming full speed (and) he still jumped pretty high but at the same time I had enough room to still finish." The Raptors bench said it all. Jonas Valanciunas had to use most of his seven-foot-four wingspan to hold half his teammates from running on the floor. Ross had gotten their attention. "Man, its got to be a nomination for dunk of the year so far, especially on a guy like that," said All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who was returning from a two-game absence with an ankle injury. "That was big. I damn sure wouldnt have done it." Ross was 11-years-old the last time the Raptors had won in Denver. It was December 30, 2003, over a decade ago. Since then Toronto had dropped nine straight in the Mile High City by an average of 17.8 points per loss. The Raptors snapped that skid on Friday. In fact, it was the third time this season that theyve broken a road losing streak of eight or more games to a specific opponent (winning in Milwaukee for the first time in nine visits and snapping a 10-game slide to the Lakers in Los Angeles). They defeated the Nuggets by double digits and tied a franchise mark for most wins in January with 11. You wouldnt know it after the game. "Well take the W but I was disappointed and I let the players know about it," Dwane Casey said following a 100-90 victory over the depleteed Nuggets.dddddddddddd "I was disappointed in the close." Toronto led by as many as 25 early in the fourth before the visitors went ice cold. They went six minutes without scoring and didnt register a field goal over the final 7:44 of the game. "You cant come in and feel like youve got the game won with a 20-point lead," said the Raptors coach, infuriated after the victory. "Youve got to continue to execute, continue to be strong with the ball, continue to execute defensively if you want to be serious about winning in this league and until you grow up and do that, youre going to end up on the short end more times than not." "We cant be satisfied with the way we played in the fourth quarter." Times have changed and so too have the expectations. The bar has been raised, evident in Caseys post-game rant. "You have to respect that," said DeRozan, who tallied 14 of his 19 points in the third quarter. "Its not acceptable how we finished that game off with the turnovers. We have to learn to keep leads and close out games." Caseys team was excellent through three quarters, and to begin the fourth. When it was all said and done they were fortunate to be facing an undermanned Nuggets squad, missing leading scorer Ty Lawson, along with Nate Robinson and Andre Miller. Without a true point guard in the lineup, the Nuggets turned the ball over more than any Raptors opponent this season, resulting in 29 Toronto points. Still, Denver out-rebounded the Raptors by nine and bested them 50-38 in the paint. "They kicked our behinds in the paint and that was one of our focuses going into the game," Casey said. "We were soft going to the ball, slow reacting to the ball." In the end, the Raptors opened a five-game trip with a win, got off the schneid in Denver and welcomed DeRozan back to the lineup 24 hours after he was named a first-time All-Star. "Well take the win," Casey said. "Were happy with the win but we cant be satisfied. ' ' '