The Pistons did what they needed to do as November turned to December, winning four straight home games against teams at the time out of the playoff picture. Those games not only sparked their offense, it launched them into a 10-game stretch Stan Van Gundy had bracketed for the challenge it presented.

Over those 10 games, the Pistons were facing nine teams with records better than theirs when it began with a Dec. 7 game at Charlotte. They lost that night in perhaps their most lethargic game of the season, their seventh back-to-back set among the season’s first 22 games. And they lost two nights later at home when Matt Barnes fired a half-court dagger to snatch away a certain win.

But they’ve recovered admirably, winning four of the last five, wins over division rivals Indiana and Chicago – the latter in four overtimes, no less – among them. The only loss: another heartbreaker, in overtime, to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Now comes the finishing kick: a back to back at Miami and Atlanta to wrap up the pre-Christmas schedule, then a home date with Boston on Saturday to complete it.

“When we went into that 10-game stretch, everybody except (Philadelphia) had a better record than we did,” Van Gundy said after Monday’s practice. “We knew this was going to really be a challenging 10-game stretch and now we’re at the end of it with three straight road games and then back to Boston at home. It’s a hard stretch and we’ve got to play really well.”

The Pistons are 16-12 through 28 games, which puts them on pace for 47 wins. But that won’t guarantee them a playoff berth in an Eastern Conference race that keeps getting more competitive. Going into Monday night’s games, the Pistons and Orlando are in the 8-9 spots with identical records, each just one game out of second place. Miami and Indiana, each 16-10, are in the 2-3 spots.

The Pistons have seen their offense spike dramatically over the past three weeks, averaging 108 points a game even before the 147-point barrage produced in the 68-minute win at Chicago. Van Gundy wants to maintain the recent efficiency at that end while getting back to the stinginess at the other end that carried the Pistons through the season’s first month.

“We’ve slipped,” he said. “We haven’t slipped real badly, but we’ve slipped. So we’ve talked about that – trying to get back to where we were earlier in the year defensively.”

“We’re starting to lose it a little bit,” Reggie Jackson agreed. “We’re starting to score more, but we’ve just got to be heady about getting back and getting set. Guys are attacking us. We’ve got two, three guys with their backs to the ball. We don’t see what’s happening. We’ve got to get back to being who we are – get back defensively, make sure everybody sees the numbers on the front of our jersey and everybody try to protect each other.”

The Pistons remain a top-10 defense in efficiency while creeping into the top 20 in offensive efficiency. Van Gundy is gradually diversifying the offense, finding more ways to give Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Marcus Morris scoring chances around the Jackson-Andre Drummond pick and roll.

“I like when our offense is running smoothly and we’re finding ways to get easy baskets,” Jackson said. “I think we’ve been hitting our stride. We’re a heavy pick-and-roll team, but Coach is finding ways to get guys involved in other ways and can probably get a little more attention off me. Then I can get the ball back on the back side and attack.”

Jackson said he’s still feeling the effects of the four-overtime win at Chicago.

“I was wide awake until we got on the plane and I think everybody just crashed there,” he said. “We were excited and finally it just hit us. Adrenaline shut down. I’m still feeling it, but we’ve got another day (before the Miami game). I think everybody is still a little bit tired.”