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It was hard to imagine the Pistons winning in Indiana, where they had not won since 2008, a mere 24 hours after a gut-wrenching loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Nothing like playing the Western Conference's best team well enough to win, only to blow it and then have to turn around and play the Eastern Conference's best the next night away from home. Going in, the Pistons seemed to be every bit of the 11-point dogs they were set up to be against the NBA's best defense, a team which had since Friday to decompress.
But the Pistons shook off the previous night's loss like it was a piece of lint on an ugly Christmas sweater and showed up to give Indiana their best look. By most accounts, the Pistons brought their best game of the season and the match up provided sports' game of the night (for Detroit fans anyway).
But just how good was the Pistons 101-96 win? Keith Langlois provided some extra perspective on it Tuesday via his Twitter account:
A little perspective on the 101 #Pistons scored to win at IND last night. Pacers average 84 points allowed in home games.
— Keith Langlois (@Keith_Langlois) December 17, 2013
Pacers are No. 1 in NBA in D efficiency at 0.935. Last night: 1.109. That's worse than the WORST in NBA right now.
— Keith Langlois (@Keith_Langlois) December 17, 2013
The Pistons have shown this year that when their offense clicks, it really clicks, and they finally have the talent and depth again to beat anybody in the league. Chalk it up to the random highs and lows of an 82-game season as you might, but the Pistons now have road wins against this year's best team and the back-to-back champions. The Pistons won 11 road games all of last season and already have more than half that total this year in a third of the games.
Let's hope they can continue turning the corner on Wednesday in what's currently, oddly enough, a playoff preview.