Salt Lake City — On Dec. 1, the Pistons were seemingly on top of the world. They had just beaten the defending-champion Golden State Warriors and improved to 13-7. It was a stretch of nine wins in 11 games and the Dwane Casey era looked to be off to a rousing start.
It was the apex of the season, as the previous stretch included a big win at Toronto and a split with the Houston Rockets. More than that, though, it showed that the Pistons could beat the teams below them in the standings, as they won road games at Orlando and Atlanta and beat Cleveland at home.