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Jackson proves a prophet: Once he relaxed, Pistons took off

Reggie Jackson declared it the best practice of his brief time as a Piston 10 days ago and expressed an unusual degree of confidence that it would carry over to games. The Pistons, coming off a 0-4 road trip, were riding a 10-game losing streak. Jackson's most recent game, two days earlier, had been his worst – a triple-single: one point, one assist, one turnover in 28 forgettable minutes of a loss at Utah.

In five games since then, the Pistons are 4-1, and nobody's been more central to the turnaround than Jackson. His numbers in those five games: 20.2 points, 12.2 assists, 6.0 rebounds and .454 shooting, including .400 from the 3-point line. Dazzling, certifiable All-Star numbers.

Was it really as simple as a few encouraging words from coaches and teammates, as Jackson proclaimed?

"Yeah," Jackson shrugged Wednesday, the day after a 28-point, nine-assist, zero-turnover masterpiece produced the Pistons third straight win, a 108-104 decision over Toronto. The essence of their advice: "Understand that I was brought in here for a reason and that I'm here to play basketball and to play my game."

A few teammates reminded him that Stan Van Gundy wasn't just his coach, but the president of basketball operations. A coach of a team going pretty well at the time, right on the edge of the playoff race, wouldn't deal two starters for a guy he didn't really covet.

"Stan's the mastermind putting it all together, bringing all the pieces together that complement each other and he enjoyed your game," Jackson said, "so that's why he brought you in. That's what a lot of my teammates told me. That's what he told me – the entire organization. It just made it easy."

And that's how Jackson has made the game look over the past week-plus.

"I don't really tell guys to relax," Van Gundy said, a little bemused at the thought. "What I was talking about is, play your game. And then we tried to show him on film, too, what we expect – and it's really about aggressiveness."

But there's a fine line between aggressiveness and recklessness. There were times in the adjustment period – Jackson not only switching teams at mid-season but joining one far different in makeup than the perimeter-dominated Oklahoma City team he left – when Jackson too often forced penetration and got caught in a vise, resulting in blocked shots, turnovers or tossing it to a teammate in a disadvantageous position.

As Tayshaun Prince kept telling him, it was going to take some time to learn how to play in a lineup with two post players, Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, similar to the process he witnessed Mike Conley endure in Memphis. Maybe it's coincidence, or that in combination with Jackson's surging comfort level, but the 4-1 record has also come with Monroe out of the lineup with a knee injury.

"I definitely think it's easier for point guards in a pick-and-roll situation, certainly, to have the floor spread out," Van Gundy said. "But not only would it take a point guard some time to get used to the two bigs, but as I've said, I've got to do a better job in terms of what we do offensively with those two bigs. Obviously, you're going to post the ball more, but also still to give Reggie room on the floor to make plays on pick and rolls and there are certainly ways to. Memphis is a good example. But I've got to do a better job in that area, too."

Van Gundy's constant drumbeat of advice to Jackson – as it was to Brandon Jennings and D.J. Augustin before him and continues to be with rookie Spencer Dinwiddie – is to push the ball in transition and attack the rim going north and south, not sideline to sideline.

"We absolutely have to have that and put pressure on the defense," Van Gundy said. "They've got to be going at the basket and making plays when help comes."

With Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Drummond – the three young players Van Gundy has penciled into next year's lineup, hoping Monroe joins them – as staples for their future, the Pistons project as a dynamic transition team as they become more cohesive and stout defensively.

"With the way we run, with the youth that we have – even the older guys understand how to run lanes," Jackson said. "They've been playing basketball for a long time, so just making things easy. I think our real identity should be defense. You get defensive stops and then we can use our youth and athleticism in transition. But it's going to start defensively – how we come out. We've got to hold people to about 90 points, under 100, and our offense will come."

"I would like to get to the point where we run," Van Gundy said. "We ran very well right after Christmas when Brandon was there. It's something we want to do more and more of. Reggie can be a guy who really pushes the ball and gets us in transition. We know Brandon can do that when we get him back healthy and we know we've got a team capable of rebounding the ball, too, which gives us a chance to get out. The major problem to us being a running team is we've got to get better defensively. You've got to get stops to do it and over the last six games, we've been better defensively, so that helps."

That's right about when Reggie Jackson learned to relax and play like the guy the Pistons traded two starters to get. Every problem should be so easy to solve.