Pistons tie franchise record with seventh straight road win

64. Final. 96. 100. 98

Pistons. BRANDON JENNINGS. A. Jennings always plays with a bit of recklessness. And that’s a good thing for the Pistons right now, who neither have the system nor the personnel to gradually break down a defense through disciplined precision on every possession. But the possibility that Jennings may do something crazy–and pull it off–is a threat other teams have to account for.<p class=. PG

B-. Caldwell-Pope was a solid spot up shooter. But he didn’t provide much of anything else. And he didn’t do all that much spotting up, either. That’s not entirely his fault. Jennings spent more of this game in hero ball mode than he usually does and he wasn’t moving the ball all that much. KCP could have done a better job of moving, creating space, and opening himself up, but he’s not much of a ball-handler so he’ll never have a big game if the PG doesn’t give him more chances.<p>And KCP did a good job on Stuckey and Miles. Along with most of the rest of the starting lineup, Kentavious was more a part of why Detroit won than a part of why Indiana almost did.</p>. SG. Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE

Pistons. KYLE SINGLER. D-. Singler happened to be on the court most of the time when the Pistons were playing well. But besides his lack of offensive production, he didn’t really bottle up Solomon Hill, either. I am chalking up Singler’s +15 to pure luck.. SF

Monroe’s play lately has really trended up. Once again, he was creating good shots–he’s easily the best the Pistons have at doing so. In spite of the fact that they mostly weren’t falling, he played hard, stout defense–against both Hibbert and West, but especially West. Greg still has work to do on that end, but he’s easily having the best defensive season of his career. And he is repeatedly showing that he has no problems being effective at PF.. PF. Pistons. GREG MONROE. B+

ANDRE DRUMMOND. A-. Drummond really needed this game. As nice as it would be to see him get back to shooting 60% from the field, he just needed big production of any kind at the moment. His defense was still highly undisciplined, but it was moderately effective this time around and hitting all four of his free throws in a two point win was huge. Not to mention the game-winning putback.. C. Pistons

F. Augustin did a good job of setting up teammates. He was the only Piston to do so in this game. But he was a train wreck anyway. The Pistons got off to a strong start for a change and D.J. checked in with a 23-14 lead. That was so unfamiliar and uncomfortable to him that he immediately put the Pistons back in the hole that he’s used to seeing when first entering games. Augustin turned the ball over four times and didn’t guard anyone en route to a 29-12 Pacers run, allowing Jennings to come back facing an eight point deficit instead of a nine point lead. That was probably at least part of the cause of his game-long hero-ball play.<p>Augustin was no better to start the fourth quarter, but Van Gundy pulled him before he could do too much damage.</p>. PG. Pistons. D.J. AUGUSTIN

D-. I like the ability Meeks is showing to put the ball on the floor and make something happen on strong close-outs, but his shooting has been terrible lately and Meeks really doesn’t bring much else to the table. Over his last five games, Jodie is shooting 18-53 (34%) and just 3-21 from deep (14%). His team really needs him to find his stroke.. SG. Pistons. JODIE MEEKS

I’m certainly not the first to say it, but the Pistons need someone they can count on being productive more often than not at SF. Butler and Singler combined to score four points in 48 minutes on 1-8 shooting. Unless a trade is forthcoming, I really don’t understand why KCP isn’t getting at least a handful of minutes there.. SF. Pistons. CARON BUTLER. D

D. Jerebko didn’t get much of a chance, but he played poorly in his seven minutes and was out-performed by Tolliver–who wasn’t exactly gangbusters, either. Still, I think he has earned the opportunity to try to play through a bad but not awful game. I highly doubt he would have been worse at SF than the Butler/Singler combo.. PF. Pistons. JONAS JEREBKO

C+. Tolliver outplayed his counterpart Scola. It wasn’t a great game, but he was decent on both ends. If he can do that consistently, I’ll take it.. PF. Pistons. ANTHONY TOLLIVER

Pistons. JOEL ANTHONY. Inc. Anthony only saw the floor because Van Gundy was overly conservative with managing Drummond’s foul trouble. He blocked a layup, but he also allowed Mahinmi to shoot 2-2. Not a good performance, but not enough to really assess either.. C

C+. The Pistons started a game well. So that’s definitely worth something. On the other hand, I didn’t like his substitutions or game management. But it was nice to see the starters play well and pull the team out of the deficit the bench gave up for a change. It’s a lot easier to address depth issues than an underwhelming starting lineup.<p>Also, the Pistons won a game that they should win but that’s hardly a given and made up more ground on a low playoff berth. They’re still two games out of 8th and three out of 7th. But they have climbed all the way to 9th and no longer have any other teams outside the playoffs ahead of them. They haven’t exactly separated from the pack, especially with the Hornets tied at 15-25. But the Pistons are doing exactly what they need to in order to return to the postseason for the first time since the summer of Gordon and Villanueva.</p><p>Also, the road win streak is a bit of a contrived record, but if anyone claims that they expected the Pistons to get any such win streak record this season after the 5-23 start, I won’t believe them.</p>. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY