AUBURN HILLS -- Playing the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves this weekend has offered the Detroit Pistons stark before-and-after visual evidence of their season metamorphosis.

Those same two opponents beat the Pistons in the first two games of the season, on consecutive October nights, so reviewing those games also revisited the genesis of Detroit's 5-23 start.

The takeaway?

Improvement.

"You really notice it in these two games," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said, "because you go back and watch the old film and you just go, 'Oh, my God, we're so much better.' "

Those Pistons had Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings, but not Jodie Meeks or Greg Monroe. They scored 79 points at Denver, then got swamped at Minnesota before a late rally made it close.

Today, they are a 3-point-reliant team that can space the floor, make free throws, play at almost any sizzling pace, and have shown resiliency in overcoming major personnel losses since the night the season opened in Denver.

The Pistons have improved to 20-31 going into Sunday's 6 p.m. home game against the Timberwolves, two games behind eighth-place Brooklyn in the Eastern Conference with three games remaining until the All-Star break.

The break will be time for reflection and contemplation, including how to react to the Feb. 19 trade deadline, but the Pistons are 15-8 since Christmas, winners in three of their last four games overall and five of their last six at home, and postseason is not quite as remote as it may have seemed the day Smith was released with the Pistons at 5-23, or when the Jennings was diagnosed with a torn Achilles at 17-27 and the Pistons lost their next three games.

They are in the hunt in a weak conference and trying to exploit it.

"It's all about how well you play," said Van Gundy, who never has been head coach of a non-playoff team. "And then a break here and there, things go your way, and you're in good shape."

The definition of how well the Pistons play has changed dramatically since the early-season losses at Denver, 89-79, and Minnesota, 97-91.

Their scoring output at Denver was the Pistons' second-lowest of the season, and those two games were consistent with the first 18 games, when they scored 100-plus points once.

The Pistons have cracked 100 in 20 of 33 games since.

"Our offensive energy, ball movement, player movement is all a lot better," Van Gundy said. "Our defense has gotten better, but it's still, unfortunately, sporadic. We play better some nights, not any good the other nights. We're not consistently focused on the defensive end of the floor. I think that would be the next step for us to take."

Van Gundy during preseason regularly referenced his first Miami Heat team, in 2003-04, which had records of 0-7, 5-15 and 25-36 before finishing 42-40 and not only qualifying for postseason but winning a first-round series.

That team was one game better at this point of the season, 21-30, than this year's Pistons, and it was pointed out to Van Gundy that it won't take 42 wins to qualify for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

"Every team's different, every year's different," he said. "You're right, you don't have to get to 42, and this team's playing well right now. Now, the schedule gets very difficult going forward. But nonetheless, I think what you want to do is stick to what you're doing, and get better all the time, play better, and the results take care of themselves."

The Pistons play six of their next seven at home, then finish with 15 of 24 on the road.

They also still have nine of their league-high 22 back-to-backs left, including two four-in-five spots. One of the four-in-fives is a grueling quartet of Western Conference road games against the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State, Portland and Utah.

The Pistons effectively will be at the two-thirds mark of the season during the All-Star break.

From last summer until now, Van Gundy consistently has avoided any guarantee or prediction about what this season might hold, safe for perseverance and improvement.

"I don't ever sit down at the beginning of the season with any thought of where we're going to be at any point," he said. "There's just so many things that can happen. You don't know what other teams are going to be like, you don't know what the injury situation (will be). I never have done that. You're just pressing on, trying to win the next game."

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