Long before the Pistons clinched a playoff berth with their April 8 Palace win over Washington, Stan Van Gundy knew the mere experience of playing intensely meaningful games in the tightly contested Eastern Conference race over several weeks would pay dividends.

But he wanted to do more than just compete for a playoff berth. He wanted to crack the field for the bonus lessons of postseason basketball immersion, where not only does the intensity ratchet up but strategy becomes more concentrated.

Given the chance to focus on what the Pistons did best, Cleveland – loaded with players for whom deep playoff runs are ingrained – made its priority to disrupt the Reggie Jackson-Andre Drummond pick-and-roll plays clear early and often throughout the tightly contested series.

As a result, Jackson spent less time in the paint by a good margin than he did over 79 regular-season games. Jackson led the Pistons in scoring over the regular season at 18.8 per game, but finished last among the five starters in scoring over the four-game series though they were tightly bunched from Marcus Morris’ 17.8 to Jackson’s 14.3.

Maybe a better reflection of the way Cleveland limited Jackson’s impact is this stat: Over the regular season, Jackson averaged 7.0 free-throw attempts per 100 possessions; in the playoffs, that shrunk to 1.5 attempts per 100 possessions.

With a few days to absorb the end of his first full season with the Pistons, Jackson spoke of what he hoped to accomplish over the summer.

“Of course, a lot of shooting, footwork,” he began, but then said, “it’s going to be a lot of watching film and figuring out how to attack defenses. First year of being a starter and guys now planning for you, so figuring out how teams are covering me.”

Van Gundy saw a difference in the way opponents attacked Jackson even as the regular season wound down, which he cited by way of explaining a dip in Jackson’s production from February (20.6 points, 49 percent shooting, 47 percent 3-point shooting) to March (15.2 points, 38 percent, 26 percent).

Jackson finished the regular season strong – he scored 39 in the playoff-clinching win over Washington – and was efficient even in the face of Cleveland’s gang defensive tactics (9.3 assists, 2.5 turnovers, 46 percent shooting) and, Van Gundy said, he’s put in a vigorous summer’s work to get even better in 2016-17.

“Reggie’s continued to just work on his body, work on his stamina, and continued to work on his shooting, where he made big gains last year,” said Van Gundy, who recently met with Jackson in Southern California. “He’s trying to do more.”

They also talked about Jackson’s focus on videotape study and observing how he can improve his decision-making in those split seconds.

“We’ve had conversations. I think that he knows in different situations what he needs to do,” Van Gundy said. “There’s not a whole lot you can do with that in your summer workouts on the court. There’s not enough people. But I think it’s certainly something he’s watched and thought about a great deal and when we get back in September and are able to start doing more stuff with guys – three on three, things like that – we can begin to work more on those things.”

Now that Van Gundy has been through an entire season – and postseason – with Jackson as his starting point guard, he’s gained greater insights into his psyche and seen the way Jackson has embraced the role of being the engine that drives the offense. He’s convinced Jackson, now 26, will adapt and come back stronger in the season ahead.

“He’s a really smart guy,” Van Gundy said. “With him setting his mind to it, I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’ll take care of that.”