The Pistons won a game on Wednesday night -- their third in a row. That's called a winning streak; it has happened before. Just not this season. If Detroit does the unthinkable and wins a fourth in a row on Friday, it'll equal their win total through the first 24 games. Now, let's jack it up.

I know, I know; the Pistons won a game, but potentially hurt their lottery odds. That said, when the Pistons win, especially in this fashion, I'm never going to be one to complain. I mean, a Jonas Jerebko "foreign facial"? A clutch three from Brandon Knight? A Greg Monroe driving tomahawk slam dunk shot? It was the future doing some exciting things to make sure a one-time 18-point lead didn't slip away, albeit against an equally bad team playing without any energy. The Pistons went around the world twice for its fans tonight, and guess what? They're still the fourth worst team in the NBA with plenty of lotto balls in their back pockets.

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Monroe led the way with his 14th double-double of the season (and eighth in the last nine games) -- 20 points on 10-for-16 shooting and 12 rebounds. Jerebko added 16 points and seven rebounds off the bench. Ben Gordon returned to the lineup with 14 points (on 6-for-7 shooting) and five rebounds.

The Pistons won despite Deron Williams' best effort to remain perfect against the Pistons; he dropped 34 points and assisted on seven baskets. Speaking of assists, the Pistons had a season-high 29.

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The Pistons may not have won a game on their back-to-back-to-back, but they finally got to the Milwaukee Bucks on their third try this short season. Detroit avoided an eighth straight loss with an 88-80 win, largely due to their No. 8 overall pick, Brandon Knight. Crazy eights. Hey! Eight ball, will the Pistons still get a draft pick that only has one eyebrow? Maybe? Gr8, cool.

Knight scored 10 points in the decisive second quarter in which the Pistons outscored the Bucks 25-15, and he finished with a career high 26 points and seven assists (and no turnovers!). Greg Monroe had his 12th double-double of the year with a modest 18 points and 11 rebounds.

Detroit held Milwaukee to 35-percent shooting, which was a nice change of pace after allowing opposing teams to shoot 48, 60, 51, 49, 49, 52, and 53-percent during the seven-game losing streak (per the Kool-Lang man).

Vanilla Ice after the jump:

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The Pistons lost all three of their back-to-back-to-back games, which now gives them back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back losses. That's seven in a row and they are a lottery rich 4-20.

Detroit had a chance to end the streak tonight in New Jersey, though, tying the game early in the fourth quarter 77-77, again with 5:35 in the fourth at 88-88, and then pulling within two with 42 seconds remaining.

Before we get to breaking down the final minute, let's revisit a real quote from Tayshaun Prince after last night's game (via tads):

"Offensively, the ball is not moving ... When one guy gets the ball, we’re looking for that guy to kind of make a play instead of all five guys moving and trying to set some screens, do some different things, things like that. We’re looking around and saying, ‘Hey, Stuckey, why don’t you save us? Tayshaun, why don’t you save us?’ and things like that."

19-second mark: Prince is standing still, or "not moving" (on defense) as a Shawne Williams three-pointer hits iron. Kris Humphries, barely boxing out, goes up to get the rebound while Prince reacts by moving his arms a little bit. Luckily, Moose gets in there to tie up Humphries to force a jump ball. The Pistons win the tap and call a 20-second timeout for a final play and a chance to tie or take the lead.

That final play Frank drew up? Broken, and then more broken as it ended with an unsuccessful Isolayshaun. It looked like Walker Russell blew it, but there was still plenty of time for some of that non-existent ball movement Prince spoke of when he got the ball back with 10 seconds. Instead, he went straight into self-proclaimed hero mode to no avail.

To be fair, nobody was moving when Prince had the ball until about five seconds when Moose, knowing his teammate all too well, sprinted into the lane to position himself for an offensive rebound. Unfortunately, Prince's shot ricocheted straight to Sundiata Gaines. Gaines missed a free throw to give the Pistons one last chance to tie, but Brandon Knight was defended well by Deron Williams and his prayer after the buzzer was long. Jubilation in Newark.

To be extra fair, Prince actually had a pretty good game. He finished with a team-high 21 points. Greg Monroe also scored 21 (on four fewer shots).

The Pistons will play their fourth game in five nights on Friday against the Bucks again.

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Franking is the Lawrence Frank version of planking, the lying down losing game. If it looks, feels, and rhymes with tanking, it's probably... something or other, right? Ironically, Larry Frank is one of the few still showing some pulse. Maybe it's his own little stamp in shielding the truth of contrived horror; maybe it's his hair.

Seriously, the Pistons might be a Walker Russell start away from confirming that they are in fact tanking to land more lottery balls, less eyebrows. Or maybe Brandon Knight is the poop in the pudding. Whatever is going on, my blind homer in me hopes crazy carl mcflies is right.

As for an actual recap on this game? Upchucking bullets after the jump

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On the back-end of a back-to-back, especially after a couple heartbreakers at home against upper echelon opponents, it's none too surprising that the 4-17 Pistons rolled over against the Atlantic Division's first place team in Philadelphia (yeah, I had to double-check -- the Sixers are 14-6 and in first place).

I mocked the fluff pub of progress in the game thread by pointing out that the Pistons only lost by 21 points when their last loss against the Sixers this season was by 23 points. Then I realized that Philly didn't have Spencer Hawes.

Hawes' absence was evident on the glass and underneath; Detroit outrebounded Philly 44-42 despite missing 14 extra shots and had 38 points in the paint to Philly's 26. But Philadelphia held the edge on fast break points (18-8), talent, and hit 9-of-15 three-pointers. Andre Iguodala had a triple-double with all 10s on his 28th birthday and at one point it was a legitimate concern the Pistons were not going to break 60 points.

The Pistons got to 74 but it took 19 points in the final six garbage minutes of the game to get there with Walker Russell, Brandon Knight, Damien Wilkins, Austin Daye, and Vernon Macklin on the court.

Greg Monroe picked up his ninth double-double of the season with 16 points (on 6-for-19 shooting) and 10 rebounds.

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The Pistons played one of their three best games of the season* against Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, but the same two young guys that helped keep Detroit in the game ultimately could not propel them to an upset victory in front of a surprisingly packed house at The Palace.

It started with Austin Daye, who in his six previous home games was 6-for-36 shooting. He hit seven shots in the second quarter alone, four being three-pointers, which was four times as many threes as he had hit in 13 games this season. He finished with a career high 28 points on 10-for-18 shooting (4-for-8 behind the arc) and also had six rebounds.

With every Daye comes Knight, Brandon Knight, who added 17 on 7-for-14 shooting in 41-plus minutes, including four or five big shots to pull the Pistons closer after Heat misses or turnovers. He also recorded two of his five assists on Daye's buzzer beater at the half and on Jerebko's three to put the Pistons up that many with a minute and a half left in the game.

Unfortunately, the downfall in the final minute and a half had as much to do with Daye and Knight as them keeping the Pistons in it. Knight started by missing two crucial free throws that would've put the Pistons up five. After LeBron knocked down two free throws following a Daye shooting foul, Daye missed a three about as bad as he missed them in the first 13 games; Knight grabbed the offensive rebound and then missed his patent floater. In the final seconds, with the Pistons having a chance to tie the game with a three, Daye walked and turned it over before he could get off what was playing out to be about as bad of a shot as you could imagine.

That shouldn't take away from their overall high quality games. With experience, these are games the young guys will hopefully close out, but for as exciting as the first 47 minutes were seeing them fight tooth and nail, the final minute was just as frustrating.

After the jump, I'll actually talk about Greg Monroe. I promise.

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Here, this is a video I was introduced to by my friend Brady and it really could should be a stand alone recap:

I believe everything in the above-embedded video.

And this was an exciting win not just because wins are fun, but also because the Pistons ended several losing streaks on Saturday night -- a five game losing streak at home, a four game losing streak overall, and a seven game losing streak to the Portland Trail Blazers that dated back to February 2008.

Rodney Stuckey was the major reason for this, as he was not Suckey, and scored 28 points on 8-for-15 shooting (8-for-9 from the line). Brandon Knight added 14 points and Greg Monroe had 10 points and eight rebounds.

More in a minute...

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It was Super 70s night at The Palace, and our Juno Pistons lost by 17 in front of about 70 people. They scored 81. The loss was Detroit's 10th in their last 11 games (or we could really just say 13th in their 16 games this season), fifth straight at home, and fourth in a row overall. Really Super.

The Pistons trailed 49-30 at the half, but scored half of 70 in an inspired third quarter wherein Lawrence Frank picked up his first technical of the season and Brandon Knight scored 12 of his 22 points. The deficit was down to as little as seven with just under nine minutes left in the game, but one last 17-3 Grizzlies run put Memphis back up 21 and the Pistons layin' a gasser.

Detroit didn't shoot all that bad as a team (44-percent) and actually outrebounded the Griz 38-27 (13-3 on the offensive glass), but 25 turnovers helped Memphis shoot 57-percent, collect assists on 23 of their 39 baskets, and score 19 fast break points. I didn't see the final stat, but when the Pistons were at 19 turnovers, the Grizzlies had translated those into 26 points (the Pistons had just six points off turnovers at that point).

Brandon Knight was the leading scorer for the Pistons with the aforementioned 22 on 6-for-18 shooting. Greg Monroe had a quiet double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. While the Pistons shot 44-percent, Knight, Monroe, and Tayshaun Prince were the three volume shooters and they combined to be just 15-for-43 (35-percent); the rest of the Pistons were 14-for-23 (61-percent).

Rudy Gay led all scorers with 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting. Far out. Get down with me after the jump.

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