NBA scores 2015: The Pistons are unstoppable and 3 other things we learned

The Detroit Pistons are the story of the season. Over the last 10 games, they've outscored opponents by 110 points and only the Hawks can match their 9-1 record. Waiving Josh Smith has had a much more positive effect anyone could have predicted, putting the Pistons squarely in the playoff race after a dreadful start to the season. Detroit confirmed their past wins weren't a fluke by beating one of the East's best teams, the Toronto Raptors, on the road after being down by 12 at the end of the first half.

The Pistons have dominated the glass lately and that trend held against the Raptors. The 17 misses Detroit recovered netted them 25 second chance points to the Raptors' 16. Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe were able to run rampant in the paint, as the Raptors bigs had to venture further out than they would have liked to cover up for a leaky perimeter defense that let the Pistons guards waltz into the paint at will. Brandon Jennings, who finished the game with 34 points and 10 assists, kept forcing the last line of defense into tough choices and the Raptors had no idea how to deal with dribble penetration after a good first quarter.

With the three-pointers not falling for Toronto in the second half and the disparity on the boards only getting bigger, the Raptors needed to run or get the line to keep up with a blazing hot Pistons offense. Their struggles on the defensive boards made getting fastbreak points an impossible task and without DeMar DeRozan and his uncanny ability to draw contact, the Raptors have become unable to get to the line at a decent rate, falling to the bottom third in the league in free throw rate after posting a number with DeRozan healthy that only the Kings, with foul magnets DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay, would eclipse.

For a while, it seemed some second half Greivis Vasquez heroics were going to be enough to get the Raptors the hard-fought win. Yet the Pistons refused to go away, with Jonas Jerebko, Brandon Jennings and Jodie Meeks taking turns at hitting timely buckets to keep Detroit in it. With the Pistons only up one point and with under a minute to go, Meeks hit a three-pointer out of a broken play. Lowry responded by hitting a tough three of his own, fading away in the corner. After the teams traded misses, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got fouled and hit both free-throws. The Raptors were supposed to have the last shot down three and with six seconds to go but Brandon Jennings stripped Lowry at half court to erase any hint of suspense from the game.

The Raptors are now tied with the Wizards for second place in the East and are hoping DeRozan comes back soon to see if his return is enough to stop their defensive slide and help them go back to being the legitimate contender they were early in the season. The Pistons, meanwhile, are now just two games out of the eight spot in the East and thanks to performances like this one, seem like a good bet to make the playoffs. Not bad for a team that until a few games was one of the league's biggest laughingstocks.

The new crop of big men keeps impressing. 24-year-old Nikola Vucevic had 33 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Mason Plumlee had 24 and 10. 22-year-old Jonas Valanciunas had 31 points and 10 rebounds against the Pistons while the duo of Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond combined for 32 points and 24 rebounds. Oh , yeah there's also Anthony Davis, who scored 34, puled down nine rebounds and dished out four assists and will be the league's best player shortly. I didn't even mention DeMarcus Cousins. The league was suffering from a scarcity of good big men not long ago but the new generation is proving to be worthy of following Tim Duncan's and Kevin Garnett's footsteps and bridging the eras until Davis takes over.

The Bulls are maddeningly inconsistent. Your opinion of the Bulls depends on what type of night you catch them on. There are games in which they look like a lock to come out of the East. They have the best big man rotation in the league, Jimmy Butler looks like a star and Derrick Rose shows flashes of still being the guy who won the MVP award four years ago. Then there are nights, like on Monday against the Magic, in which their rim protection is nonexistent, the spacing is mucked up and everyone looks disinterested. The Bulls have wins against the Trail Blazers, Rockets and Raptors and losses to the Jazz, the Nuggets and the Pacers. It's impossible to pin down exactly how good they are.

Kevin Garnett is not too old to throw down. Kevin Garnett has developed a well-earned reputation as a "fake tough guy", someone who picks on smaller players and targets foreign guys to bark to. He also has a known rivalry with Dwight Howard -- who can forget the "paint your face, clown!" incidents? -- that flared up again on Monday.

Celtics 108, Pelicans 100 (Celtics Blog recap | The Bird Writes recap)

Rockets 113, Nets 99 (The Dream Shake recap | Nets Daily recap)