The Pistons have twice lost at Philadelphia this season, turning in two of their most lethargic performances. They bounced back by beating two of the NBA's best teams, Houston and Chicago, after each instance.

And somewhere out there in cyberspace, talk radio, print or the corner tavern, this conversation almost certainly took place: "What's up with the Pistons?" "Yeah, they beat the really good teams, then lose to the bleepin' Sixers!"

Except there's a little more to it than that. In both losses at Philadelphia, the Pistons had played somewhere else the night before and traveled while the 76ers were off, home and resting. And in both games they bounced back to score upset wins, the Rockets and Bulls had played the night before and traveled to The Palace while the Pistons were off with their feet up.

Last week's loss to Philadelphia was the third time in their most recent five games that the Pistons had faced a scheduling disadvantage. The week before, they played four games in five nights on a West Coast trip in which none of their opponents had played the previous night. The Pistons lost at both Golden State and Utah in the second night of a back-to-back set while both opponents had enjoyed the previous night off.

On Sunday night, they defied the odds – beating Boston despite playing at home on Saturday night and traveling while the Celtics were resting, making it four of their last seven games played with a distinct scheduling disadvantage. And they even did it despite having to go to overtime against the fresher team.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, because almost nobody gets more chances to perform in such situations as the Pistons. They and Charlotte lead the league in back-to-back sets this season with 22. In all but two of those situations, the Pistons did or will have to travel to another city to play the back end.

"It's something the league needs to address, but I've got no control over it," Stan Van Gundy said last week. "As a coach, you play 'em, but that's a major schedule imbalance."

One of the problems, as Van Gundy has frequently noted this season, is that the Pistons – like almost two-thirds of NBA teams – rarely, if ever, play on Thursday night. That night is reserved for TNT's exclusive doubleheader coverage. And that's limited to the teams perceived as title contenders, a heavy diet of the Golden States, San Antonios, Houstons, Chicagos and Clevelands of the world. So the Pistons and the majority of NBA teams cram their 82-game schedule into six days of the week, while the glamour teams use all seven nights.

But even that's no guarantee of scheduling equity. The Cleveland Cavaliers, frequent Thursday night participants, have the greatest disparity between games where they get caught on short rest compared to games where they have the rest advantage with a minus-nine – often, those games coming on Friday night, after the Cavs played a Thursday showcase game.

But the Pistons are on Cleveland's heels, tied for second at minus-eight.

Players typically recoil at talking about the challenges of the schedule, preferring to ignore the subject altogether for fear it will seep into their consciousness and serve as a crutch.

"If they had the night off and we're coming off a back to back, it's no excuse for anybody, because we all go through the same things," Andre Drummond said. "I think we've just got to be better with those types of situations, getting ourselves better prepared for those types of games."

Press him, and he admits, "It's hard, man. It's hard."

Van Gundy has a little more influence than most coaches due to his dual coach-team president role and you can bet in discussions with owner Tom Gores and Platinum Equity partners Bob Wentworth and Phil Norment the issue will be discussed prior to off-season NBA meetings.

"I think the Board of Governors is who needs to bring that up and we'll address that in the off-season," Van Gundy said. "But there should be an equity in scheduling. Scheduling should not be to anyone's advantage or disadvantage."

The fact the Pistons play 22 of their games on the second night of a back-to-back set means they play more than 25 percent of their schedule in that circumstance. The eight more times they play with a schedule disadvantage than with the extra rest represents almost 10 percent of their games.

"To me, what we're doing on back to backs, where we've got, between the teams that play the most and the teams that play the least, a six- or seven-game disparity, we would never tolerate that in terms of home or away. If you looked at the schedule and you said, they've got 45 home games and hey, they've only got 37 (road games), everybody would go crazy. But on the back to backs, we don't say anything.

"I think that is something to be addressed. The more equitable you make the schedule for everybody, the better off it is. I don't think one team should be playing six more back to backs than somebody else, but that's me."