Auburn Hills, MI (My Sportsbook) - Kevin Garnett tallied game highs with 25 points and 13 rebounds to lead Minnesota over Detroit, 88-87, at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Sam Cassell added 16 points and six assists for the Timberwolves, who won their fifth straight game and second in as many nights.

Richard Hamilton netted 24 points and handed out six helpers for the Pistons, who took the court with newly acquired Rasheed Wallace and Mike James. But due to a bureaucratic mix up, the duo sat out the second half.

Detroit coach Larry Brown was notified at the intermission that all the paper work was not complete between the three teams involved in the trade that brought Wallace and James to the Pistons.

On Thursday, which was the NBA trade deadline, the Atlanta Hawks traded Wallace to the Pistons as part of a three-team deal that also included the Boston Celtics.

Detroit got James from the Celtics, and Atlanta acquired forward Chris Mills from Boston and center Zeljko Rebraca and guard Bob Sura from Detroit. The Hawks obtained the rights to Milwaukee's 2004 first-round draft choice, which Detroit previously acquired from Denver.

The Celtics got guards Chucky Atkins and Lindsey Hunter, both of whom were with the Pistons, Detroit's 2004 first-round selection and cash considerations.

Chauncey Billups finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists en route to the first triple-double for Detroit since Ben Wallace's in November 2002.

The Pistons trailed by as many as 12, but Richard Hamilton cut the deficit to 86-85 on a layup with just 15.3 seconds to play.

Detroit was then forced to foul and Cassell made two from the stripe to extend the Minnesota margin back to three.

Tayshaun Prince fired up a three-pointer that was short, but Wallace collected the rebound and scored the field goal from close range for the final points of the game with 1.3 seconds remaining.

Latrell Sprewell was then fouled right away, but missed both foul shots to still give the Pistons a shot to win.

But they threw a pass over half-court and never got a shot off.

Detroit won the battle on the glass, 51-37, but only shot 43 percent from the field and only caused 10 turnovers, while committing 16.

Wallace scored four points in 12 minutes in his shortened Detroit debut, while James was scoreless in five minutes.