Detroit Pistons found success without Cade Cunningham. They should be better with him.

The Detroit Pistons were 3-33 when Cade Cunningham injured his left knee Jan. 7 in Denver.

In the three weeks since, they’ve matched that win total. The Pistons’ 120-104 upset win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday improved the team’s record without Cunningham to 3-6 — not one to brag about, but still a much higher win percentage than their previous historically bad pace.

They’ve found something resembling momentum, with wins over the putrid Charlotte Hornets and excellent Thunder in their past three games, and three wins in their past seven, sandwiching competitive losses against contending teams in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks.

Cunningham has missed nine of the past 10 games. He returned for Saturday’s home game against the Washington Wizards — a bad 118-104 loss — before he was a late scratch against the Thunder on Sunday.

It’s too small a sample size to say the Pistons are better without their 2021 first overall pick, who was on a tear as a scorer and facilitator before his injury. Common logic says they’re a weaker team without a player who in the nine games before his injury averaged 29.1 points, 8.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals on 52.7% shooting, including 38.8% shooting from 3-point range. But their best stretch of the season as a team has come afterward.

He practiced Tuesday and is again listed "probable" to play Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Coach Monty Williams wants the team to continue the habits it formed during Cunningham’s absence — namely, taking better control of the ball. Beyond that, he isn’t sure why the team doubled its win total.

“There’s a number of things that have happened in those games,” Williams said after practice in the team’s facility in New Center. “We’ve played hard, but we always play hard. Sometimes teams exceed your force, but we tend to play hard. In a lot of those games, there’s been a huge decrease in turnovers. That’s been something that the whole group has partnered with us in understanding what the turnovers do.

“When you’re missing a player like Cade and you win games, I try not to think too much about it. You’re just grateful to get a win. And then you think when we get him back and he gets a rhythm, we can be that much better.”

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The Pistons, suddenly, have figured out how to pass. Until Jan. 7, they had the second-worst turnover rate in the NBA committing 16.1 per game, and were 18th in assists with 25.8. In the 10 games since, they’re averaging fewer turnovers (13, 15th in the NBA) and more assists (28.2, tied for 10th).

Taking better care of the ball, of course, has had several positive effects. Teams are averaging 19.6 points scored off turnovers per game against the Pistons, most in the league. Since Jan. 8, that has been reduced to 16.2 — 15th in the league. Overall, their net rating in 10 games without Cunningham is minus-4.6, a massive improvement from their minus-9.7 mark on the season.

Cunningham was the NBA’s most turnover-prone player early on, and improved immensely after November. But Saturday, possibly due to rust, he had a team-high seven turnovers with 20 points and 12 assists. His teammates deferred to him, and the offense devolved into isolation after isolation as the Wizards pulled away with a double-digit win.

The Pistons dished their second-highest number of turnovers (17) and fewest assists (22) since Cunningham’s initial injury. Williams wants to see the team continue to embrace an up-tempo style and move the ball, rather than rely on their franchise player to carry the load. Cunningham has mostly played a high-usage, heliocentric role this season. He's the team's best playmaker, but they're showing there's room for multiple players to be aggressive.

“The thing that I don’t want them to do is to back off of their game, or defer,” Williams said. “I thought (Jaden Ivey), he didn’t defer but he just didn’t have the same get-downhill (mentality), and a lot of it is on us not playing in the hit-ahead game with him. I’m not sure if there’s a defer attitude or a deferment. We just didn’t adjust to how Washington played us, and then against OKC we were headstrong about getting the ball down the floor so guys could play in space.”

Williams acknowledged when a player of Cunningham’s caliber returns, it can be a challenge to reacclimate that player back into the offense once players find a groove without them. Ivey and Jalen Duren, in particular, have stepped up as scorers and facilitators in Cunningham's absence. Duren dished six assists, his career-high, in Sunday's win over the Thunder.

“But that’s not a bad thing," Williams said. "For me, I don’t want our guys deferring or backing off of how they’ve been playing just because he’s back. I thought we saw some of that in the Washington game. When he is back on the floor, everybody’s gotta play the same way. I think that makes us a better team and makes us a more consistent team. You don’t want to be morphing in-between identities as a player. You want to be able to play the same way. For us, it starts with how hard you play and how hard you defend. And if you do that, I think it makes the offense a bit easier.”

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Cunningham was listed as “probable” Sunday morning before the team ultimately decided to hold him out just before tipoff, and was also probable three days earlier vs. Charlotte, before being downgraded to “questionable” and ultimately sitting.

The team will see if he’s able to come through against the surging Cavaliers (28-16).

“We’ve gotta see how he responds,” Williams said. “I’m mindful of everything he’s come back from and has been through. Just trying to measure all of that with him coming back and being efficient with the workouts and making sure he’s in a good place.”

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Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pistons found success minus Cade Cunningham, should be better with him