NBA: Detroit Pistons at Sacramento Kings, Dec. 13, 2014

That's our J-Smoove. Sure, Detroit Pistons forward Josh Smith, center, loses the ball as he tries to split the Sacramento Kings' Derrick Williams, left, and Rudy Gay. But he otherwise was spectacular.

(AP Photo | Rich Pedroncelli)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Josh Smith maddens fans. He fattens boxscores. And at his very best, even when he sails a pass into the second row or toe-dribbles out of bounds, the man dubbed "J-Smoove" is the Detroit Pistons' most complete 94-by-50-foot player.

Smith, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe took advantage of a depleted Sacramento Kings interior Saturday for a 95-90 win, the Pistons' second in a row on the heels of a 13-game losing streak, and their first consecutive road wins against the NBA Western Conference since November 2010.

Smith and Drummond had double-doubles, and Monroe was the Pistons' leading scorer, as the big-three line didn't start together but combined for 57 points and 29 rebounds against the DeMarcus Cousins-less Kings.

Smith had his best game of the year, 21 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, five blocked shots and two steals. He was 9 of 16 from the floor and didn't shoot a 3-pointer.

And yes, he had seven turnovers.

Josh Smith, ladies and gentlemen, Josh Smith.

"I thought he played hard and well," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. "At times, he tries to do too much. He tries to make too many plays, too many difficult plays, and he turns the ball over.

"Put it this way, he does what Josh Smith, at his best, does -- he fills up the stat sheet. He does a lot of different things. There's just one column we wouldn't like him to fill up."

Smith got off to a quick start for the second consecutive game with his playmaking, starting with an early lob to Drummond for a dunk. Smith leaped high in the air three times as he retreated back on defense after that play, which set a tone for Detroit paint dominance.

The only interior element the Pistons didn't control was rebounding -- the Kings had a 55-43 edge, with 22 offensive.

But the Kings also missed 60 field-goal attempts, including nine blocked, and shot 35.5 percent, all season-bests for the Pistons' defense.

The Pistons (5-19) embarked on this three-game, four-day western trip with Van Gundy acknowleding they were in a tough scheduling stretch, even after they return home to face sizzling Dallas next week.

It was a moment of acknowledgment that everyone does advance schedule analysis, and despite all their next-game-only mantras, coaches aren't immune.

Now, just three days after Van Gundy's assessment, the Pistons go to Los Angeles where they will play the Clippers with a chance at sweeping the three-game road trip on Monday.

The mere suggestion would have been borderline bizarre after 13 dings in a row, until the Pistons finished off late leads in wins here and Friday at Phoenix.

"We've got to be able to piggy-back on these wins, see what we did correctly in these games," Smith said. "We didn't get discouraged when both of those teams made runs at us, and we stayed poised in the moment, and we stayed together."

For the second consecutive night, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a late 3-pointer to seal the deal. This one made it 86-79 with 1:35 left after the Kings had drawn within four, which was as close as they got after Detroit opened the second half on an 11-0 run.

"It shows that he doesn't doubt himself," Smith said of his fellow Georgia native. "He has a lot of confidence and that's what we need him to do.

"He's a 3-point shooter, him and Jodie (Meeks), and even though they might not be able to make early-on jumpers, we want them to continue to shoot them, because they can be the difference-makers in games. And the last two games have shown that."

Save for rebounding, the Pistons controlled most facets of the game, including scoring the first 13 fast-break points en route to a 31-9 edge.

That checks two boxes Van Gundy seeks for internal improvement: Better transition defense and pushing the ball more offensively.

"I thought the transition game was good today," Van Gundy said. "But again, it goes hand in hand. We held them to 35 percent. If we had rebounded better, we would have had even more opportunities. We didn't do a good job on the glass. But I thought we ran well and should have ended up with more."

The Kings (11-13), who have lost six of their last seven home games against Detroit, are 2-7 without Cousins, who would rank fourth in NBA scoring and lead the league in rebounding if he qualified.

With the Kings' star out, the Pistons' big men feasted.

Monroe had 24 points and eight rebounds, with just one turnover, and was 8 of 9 at the free-throw line.

Drummond had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and looked on his way to a big night before early foul trouble limited him to 26 minutes.

And then there was Smith, who said several factors have loosened up the offense, including more transition opportunities, crisper sets, and Meeks' return.

"We're finding each other at our strengths instead of late-shot-clock shots, where we have to take long, contested shots," Smith said. "We're able to break down the defense a little earlier and find each other a little earlier so everybody's able to get into their comfort zones."

The Pistons have offered just enough hope to throw it out there: They are six games behind Brooklyn for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

They also dug this hole over four arduous weeks when they failed to win a game.

It still has all the essentials of a lost season.

Except there are 58 games to go and no one in the locker room looks at it that way.

"You don't want to say that all our problems are solved and everything's going to be all right," Kyle Singler said. "We can't relax now. Going back to what coach has always been saying, we've been playing well in practice. We've got enough pieces to win. We just can't lose confidence in ourselves. We've got to play well as a team. We've got to know that we're going to win playing as a team. We just can't lose sight of that and, eventually, everything will turn."

NBA: Detroit Pistons at Sacramento Kings, Dec. 13, 2014 9 Gallery: NBA: Detroit Pistons at Sacramento Kings, Dec. 13, 2014

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