CLEVELAND – Remember when the Detroit Pistons were in last place?

Whether that becomes an enduring and endearing question, or just a screen blip – remember those fleeting playoff discussions a couple weeks ago? – the Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 87-75 on Wednesday, which flip-flopped those two teams in the Central Division standings.

Does it frame this road trip differently, with its excruciating losses and now consecutive wins, that the Pistons stand in fourth place, percentage points ahead of the fifth-place Cavs, .360 to .354, after spending the entire season in last place previously?

“Not at all,” Tayshaun Prince said. “The thing that's really important about these two wins is how long we've been on the road and we were still able to come out and get these two wins. It says a lot about what we could have done before these two games.”

Oh, the road heartbreak has been palpable. The tough final minutes at Phoenix, the late basket by the Los Angeles Clippers to force overtime, and the brutal four-point play which cost the Pistons a victory for the ages at Denver, piled up during a stretch of nine road games in a 10-game span.

With Ben Gordon out with a groin pull, Wednesday looked iffy, too, even against a Cleveland team which has fallen apart since trading away backup point guard Ramon Sessions to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Cavs have lost five in a row and eight of nine.

And when Rodney Stuckey left early with a strained left hamstring, it appeared Detroit was just the tonic the ailing Cavs needed, as they jumped to a seven-point first-quarter lead.

“It changes when those guys are out, both of them,” Prince said of Stuckey and Gordon, “because I know at that time, I've got to be a decision-maker more, but also be more aggressive looking for shots, whether I make or miss. It just so happened tonight that I was in a good rhythm.”

Prince took over offensively in a 29-point night that equaled his season-high, including 13 in the second quarter, when he made three 3-pointers, one of which gave the Pistons a 35-32 lead they never relinquished. They pushed the lead to as many as 15 points in the third quarter.

Austin Daye scored eight points in 29 minutes and played the entire third quarter in one of his more effective bench stretches.

“It's always good to see when guys have success that haven't been playing, that have been outside the rotation,” Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said of Daye. “When given an opportunity, and they have some good moments, you feel good for them.”

Frank said Daye made the proper decisions defensively, which kept him on the floor, after hinting regularly at the player's defensive decisions in the past.

“When I can hear positive things from the bench, it really gives me a lot of confidence,” Daye said. “Just being in the right spots defensively, just all those things, being able to hear good things from the bench makes you comfortable.”

With the win Monday at Washington, the Pistons have won consecutive road games for the first time since Nov. 12 and 14, 2010, when they won at the Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings.

The Pistons (18-32) shared fourth place with the Cavaliers (17-31) on three dates in early January, and had been alone in last place since a Jan. 9 loss to Chicago.

Now, for the first time, someone is behind the Pistons in the division standings. The question is how long it stays that way.

Email David Mayo at dmayo@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo