Detroit Pistons are in playoff contention and I have no idea how?

The Detroit Pistons are 1.5 games out of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference of the NBA and I have no idea how or why except that there are only a couple of Teams at the top of the Eastern Conference that are really good and the rest are mediocre at best.  This is how far the NBA has fallen the past few years, only a few real good Teams and everyone else is about the same. The Pistons are a team that has been bad, very bad the last 5 years or so, and has had allot of drama and turmoil this year including a major season ending injury to one of its star players (Brandon Jennings)  and cutting a player (Josh Smith)  that they signed last off season to a huge contract and then letting him go in the first half of the year because he was a cancer to the team.  Now do not get me wrong, this team has many many flaws and weaknesses such as they live and die by the 3 pointer, they refuse to play defense and let opposing players drive to the basket uncontested at will and sometimes look more like a team playing pick up basketball at a rec center than a professional basketball team. They brought Stan Van Gundy in to be Coach and President of Basketball Operations and paid him a whole bunch of money to do it. This team seems to give allot of effort, but lacks discipline and does not want to play defense which is very confusing seeing Van Gundy is known for having his teams in the past playing hard disciplined basketball both on offense and defense and they thrived at times playing disciplined defense. That is not the case nowadays where the defense they play is like a piece of swiss cheese with so many holes in it that allows opposing teams to go to the basket never touched or blocked. Teams know that they do not need to take jump shots for driving to the basket often gets allot of free ducks or easy baskets. The Pistons have a few players that have stood up and grabbed rebounds (Drummond and Monroe)and played a bit of defense and with more playing time some player(s) are starting to score more (Augustin) and some how the Pistons are winning more than they are losing especially starting the season 5-23. The Pistons need to bring back Laimbeer and Mahorn for a month to show these Pistons how to play defense and clog up the middle when an opponent drives to the basket, something this team sorely is missing.  The team appears aloof for periods of time in a game and then has a great spurt of energy for short periods of time. The energy and effort appears to be here for this team on occasion and  now it is Van Gundy's job to get them to play better as a team both defensively and offensively and get back to basic basketball fundamentals. Van Gundy has this years patch worked and under talented NBA Pistons playing just enough basketball to win games they have no reason to even be winning and possibly even making it into the playoff which in itself would be a miracle.The next 6 weeks should be a very interesting time for these Detroit Pistons.                   @cupofjoeinthed