MIAMI – Getting good means getting noticed. And getting noticed comes with complications.

Reggie Jackson wanted out of Oklahoma City and the large shadow cast by Russell Westbrook and he’s largely flourished in an expanded role with the Pistons. But leading them to their first winning season in eight years – one win in the last five games assures that much – has increased the glare of the spotlight on Jackson.

“Early in the year, people didn’t really know what to expect from us,” Stan Van Gundy said of the difference in the way teams prepare to play the Pistons now. “We got very vanilla, very basic game plans.”

What Van Gundy has observed, especially since the All-Star break, is opponents becoming more aggressive at attacking Jackson to get the ball out of his hands. Before the break, he averaged 19.1 points and shot .442 overall and .370 from the 3-point line; in the 23 games since, he’s averaged 17.0 and shot .407 overall and .308 from the arc. His numbers since March 1 are off even more sharply, averaging 15.4 points and shooting .369 and .266.

“Teams are doing a really good job. His pick and rolls are the number one feature in everybody’s game plan against us,” Van Gundy said. “We’re going through that as a team for the first time; he’s going through it as a player for the first time. When he was in Oklahoma City, even though he played real well, the game plan, you were talking about Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, maybe a little Serge Ibaka.

“Now we’ve played better. We’re pretty good. He was off to a tremendous start. First two-thirds of the year, he was great. Now people are game planning for him. They’re making it tougher on him, no question, and our team – not just Reggie, our team – has to play better out of those situations.”

If the Pistons hang on to their playoff spot, they’re getting a small-dose preview of what they can expect from a postseason opponent that has the luxury of narrowing its focus to a single team for at least four consecutive games. The Goin’ to Work-era Pistons faced the same thing as opponents sold out to make Chauncey Billups give up the ball and force Rip Hamilton or Tayshaun Prince to become primary ballhandlers.

The good news is these Pistons are a little better equipped to make the opposition pay for playing defense three on four for a second or two if Jackson gets off the ball and puts it in the hands of others.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has become a capable playmaker off the dribble, his assists up nearly 25 percent from a year ago. Marcus Morris is comfortable playing in isolation, as well, and the addition of Tobias Harris gives the Pistons a consistently reliable off-the-dribble playmaker. Harris, especially, has been put in position to run pick-and-roll plays with Andre Drummond to give teams a different look from the steady drumbeat of Jackson-Drummond pick and rolls.

Coaches for both of the Pistons’ last two opponents weighed in on what the Harris addition, in particular, means for them.

“(Harris is) a very versatile player,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “I think every opponent does this. They look at him and Morris and say, ‘Which guy is the three man, which guy is the four man?’ Those two positions give them great flexibility. Harris is a guy that can put it on the floor, can make plays, can shoot runners, can pass it. He’s a guy that has a lot of different dimensions to his game. He really has helped them.”

“That was a big pickup for them,” Chicago’s Fred Hoiberg said. “Stan’s put him in some great situations. He’s a tough cover. He’s great getting to the rim, he can knock down the three, extremely athletic getting out in transition. A really good pickup for them and I think he changed that team.”

Jackson is aware that teams have picked up their aggressiveness and are forcing quicker decisions from him.

“I think guys are really trying to take the ball out of my hand early, trying to take Andre out of roll situations,” he said. “We’ve got to still be in attack. We look to our wings to really make ’em pay.”

Dallas, like many teams, scouts the opposition’s previous five games in advance of a matchup. And Carlisle noticed a pretty stark difference in the Pistons from their early March meeting in Dallas to last week’s return match at The Palace.

“They’ve had five or six guys in double figures the last five games and Jackson, who may have been leading the team in scoring the last time we played these guys in the games – it was either he or Drummond – right now Jackson’s like fourth or fifth. It’s Drummond and Morris and some of these other guys. They’ve struck a balance where you’re not just looking at one problem; there’s multiple problems.”

Van Gundy believes the Pistons are equipped to counter opposition’s change in tactics, but only if they remain vigilant about maintaining improved ball movement.

“The ball’s got to move. In all of our good stretches, it’s when the ball moves and we’re either getting to the rim or we’re getting shots off of passes when they come to stop us going to the rim,” he said. “We’re not doing a lot of one-on-one stuff when we’re good.”