There is significant imbalance in the Eastern Conference this season with the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat far-and-away the cream of the crop. The conference is heavy around the middle, with seven teams within five games of each other in a fight for the bottom six seeds.   

The Detroit Pistons are one of those clubs. They entered 2014 as the seventh seed, just a winning or losing streak away from third or the lottery. At 14-19, they have surprisingly been stronger on the road than at home.

Only three teams -- the Utah Jazz, New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks -- have fewer wins at home this season. The Pistons are 6-11 at the Palace, but have spilt their 16 road contests.

“Playing in someone else’s arena is always going to be tough, no matter who you are,” Andre Drummond told RealGM recently. “I think we’ve been doing a really good job of coming together as a unit when playing on the road.”

Winning on the road is difficult no matter the opponent, but the Pistons haven’t only feasted on weak Eastern foes. Detroit is one of just two teams -- the Chicago Bulls are the other -- to record wins over the Pacers and Heat this season.

The Pistons, unlike the Bulls, went to both Miami and Indiana and knocked off the presumed top seeds. That’s quite a feat for a team with a new coach (Maurice Cheeks), budding star (Drummond) and three new players (Brandon Jennings, Josh Smith and rookie Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) playing at least 23.5 minutes.

“Those were definitely two big wins for us, especially on the road, but we are more focused on the big picture,” Greg Monroe said. “We are still under .500. That’s something we are trying to correct by being consistent. We know we’re not going to be perfect, but we want to be more consistent and play like that every night.”

Consistency has been a big issue for the Pistons. Aside from a four-game winning streak in early December, which preceded a three-game losing streak, they have had trouble following up strong efforts with another one. They are 13-9 against the East and 1-10 against the Western Conference.

“We talked about that earlier, about how we should come out and be aggressive whoever it is,” Maurice Cheeks said.

“Certainly beating Miami and Indiana on the road is significant for us, but just playing consistent basketball on the road is where we are trying to get. It doesn’t matter who it is, although Miami and Indiana are two very good teams and that’s very impressive for us, but we are just trying to play consistent basketball.”

Losers of three-straight, the Pistons have a chance to gain some ground in the playoff race with a relatively easy January schedule. They’ll play seven at home and seven on the road with the Los Angeles Clippers the only elite team on the docket.

The maturation process hasn’t been easy, even if they have faired well on the road, especially following a recent “feud” between Cheeks and Smith. The growing pains will continue, but the climate in the East makes the road to success a bit easier.