DALLAS -- As easy as the math seems, the Detroit Pistons insist that their surprising recent success isn't a simple case of addition by subtraction.

How else to explain the fact a Pistons team that was 5-23 when it shocked the NBA by waiving ill-fitting Josh Smith is suddenly the NBA's hottest squad? Detroit earned that distinction by extending its winning streak to seven games Wednesday night with a 108-95 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, whose six-game winning streak went up in smoke.

"I know you guys want to look for that headline, but we're not focused on that," said Detroit power forward Greg Monroe, who had a dominant 27-point, 18-rebound, six-assist outing in the wire-to-wire win over Dallas. "As players, we had nothing to do with that decision. We feel like it's just our job to come out and play.

Greg Monroe entered free agency coming off a season in which he averaged a career-high 10.2 rebounds in 69 games for the Pistons. Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports

"If you guys want to make a headline, that's on y'all. We just come in here and try to do our jobs."

For whatever reasons, the Pistons have been doing their jobs remarkably well since first-year coach and team president Stan Van Gundy made the stunning decision to bid farewell to Smith, eating more than half of the forward's four-year, $54 million deal.

The first five games of the Pistons' winning streak -- the franchise's longest since 2008-09, the last time Detroit made the playoffs -- might have seemed like fool's gold. The only team with a winning record the Pistons faced in that span was the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Cavs were playing with an injured, ineffective version of LeBron James and without Kyrie Irving that afternoon.

But it's impossible to blow off the back-to-back wins the Pistons pulled off during this Texas two-step trip, rallying from an 18-point deficit to beat the defending champion San Antonio Spurs at the buzzer and following that up by beating up the Mavs.

"Really, essentially, it was a wipeout," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said after seeing his team lose the rebounding battle by a 60-43 margin. "Start to finish, they just outplayed us. It's no accident that they're on a seven-game winning streak and they're beating some good teams."

Wanna know how long it has been since the Pistons won on the road in San Antonio and Dallas during the same season, much less on back-to-back nights? Try 1996-97, before Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki broke into the league.

And this is a team that had a 13-game losing streak end less than a month ago?

"Night and day," said Mavs small forward Chandler Parsons, comparing the Pistons to the team Dallas beat in Detroit by double digits three weeks ago. "It's all confidence. They obviously always had the talent. Same coach, same plays, same system. They're just playing free and they have the confidence right now."

It can be strongly argued that the Pistons have less talent now than they did before they waived Smith. He was still talented enough to draw interest from several contending teams, including the Mavs, before opting to sign with the Houston Rockets, who are playing Smith in his natural position.

There's no doubt that the sum of the parts for the Pistons, just three games out of the East playoff picture at this point, is suddenly adding up to a much greater whole.

"I didn't anticipate this," said Van Gundy, who has adamantly and repeatedly stated that he had no problems with Smith's character or work ethic. "What we anticipated was giving different guys opportunities, our young guys. Josh's a 10-year vet in a tough situation at 5-23, and I wanted to give other people opportunities, which was probably going to cut his minutes and take the ball out of his hands some. I didn't really think it was fair in that regard. It was easier to do it this way, plus in the future we also get a cap-space benefit, so it helps us for the future.

"How this has all happened, I really don't know."

Brandon Jennings is averaging 19.3 points a game during the seven-game win streak, and he hit the winner against the Spurs on Tuesday. AP Photo/Eric Gay

Perhaps we should start with the fact that the Pistons are no longer trying to hammer a power-forward peg into a small-forward hole. There was a lot of head-scratching when former Detroit general manager Joe Dumars signed Smith to the big deal, considering the poor fit on paper with the Pistons' best two assets, power forward Monroe and young center Andre Drummond. That trio didn't work any better on the hardwood than it did on paper.

Before his Detroit departure, Smith led the Pistons in field-goal attempts (14.0 per game) despite shooting sub-40 percent. He had Detroit's worst plus-minus (minus-6.9 per game). And the Pistons were bad on both ends of the floor, ranking 28th in offensive efficiency and 24th in defensive efficiency.

Since Dec. 22, the day of the Smith divorce, the Pistons rank fourth in offensive efficiency and second in defensive efficiency.

"When the situation happens with a teammate, somebody gets waived or traded, it's like a wake-up call," Pistons point guard Brandon Jennings said. "And it also sets up opportunities for other players. Everybody else has been stepping up and got their opportunity. Guys have responded to that."

Jennings has been one of the stars of the winning streak, averaging a team-high 19.3 points during the seven games and hitting the game-winner in San Antonio. Drummond (14.4 points, 16.4 rebounds) has also been dominant.

But those two didn't play a second in the fourth quarter against the Mavs, watching as a small-ball lineup featuring Monroe and four reserves slammed the door on Dallas. Monroe had eight points, eight rebounds and two assists in the final frame, when backup point guard D.J. Augustin scored 17 of his season-high 26 points.

"At some point, like 4:40 to go, I turned to my assistants on the bench and said, 'Do we want any subs?'" Van Gundy said. "And we had Brandon and Andre standing up going, 'Hell no! This group's rocking!' So that's what we've got right now attitude-wise. It's different people every night and nobody seems very concerned about it. They just want to try to win games."

Detroit isn't just winning, it's dominating its competition. Its comeback in San Antonio is the lone single-digit victory during the Pistons' streak.

The Pistons prefer to focus on even simpler math, but this sure looks like a classic addition-by-subtraction equation.

"I guess if that's what you want to say," said Jennings, who received an encouraging text from Smith after the Pistons' seventh straight win. "I'm just going to say we're taking it one game at a time and we'll see where it goes."