Make it 7...

I did NOT expect this. The Pistons' winning streak was cute and all, but Cleveland was banged up & on the verge of a slump, and San Antonio limited minutes on a lot of their vets & didn't play Kawhi Leonard at all. So Detroit got hot & beat up some weak competition, luckily catching their 2 stronger opponents on off nights. With last night's win over Dallas in the books, it's official. Forget what you thought you knew, this Pistons team is legit. Josh Smith may have been a cancer, a bad fit, or his release was just a wake up call, but whatever the case, Detroit is 7-0 in the post-J-Smoove era.

It's been kind of like the Arizona Cardinals' "Next Man Up" mantra. Last night it was DJ Augustin and Greg Monroe doing the heavy lifting, but on other nights it has been Drummond, Jennings, or Meeks leading the scoring. The offense has been better (Pistons scored 100+ points in 6 out of the 7 wins), as has the defense (opponents have scored 95 points or less in 5 out of the 7 wins).

One of the more surprising improvements has been the play of the bench. I expected Meeks to help out a bit, but this bench unit has gone from a pretty weak group to a unit that SVG can rely on to close a game. Jerebko has gotten more minutes, probably contributing to that extra level of energy the Pistons have been playing at. The 4th quarter lineup consisted of DJ (+4), Meeks (+12), Butler (+8), Jerebko (+14) and starter Greg Monroe (+11).

Speaking of Greg Monroe, what a monster night he had. 27 points, 18 boards, 6 dimes, and just a whole TON of hustle. Didn't see that hustle stuff much when J-Smoove was on the team, which leads me to believe that Monroe didn't particularly care for Smith. Anyway, his team defense still isn't that great (he got beat BADLY while trying to double team Rondo), but he hammered the glass & played a pretty good 2-man game with Jennings. Check the highlights.

The win puts Detroit 3 games behind the #8 seed in the East. If Detroit plays .600 ball the rest of the season they would finish with 40 wins. Still not great, but 40 wins would represent significant improvement and get them one of the bottom 3 playoff seeds. Tomorrow night they'll get a look at how a top Eastern Conference team plays when Atlanta (Really? Atlanta is #1 in the East???) comes to the Palace.