Plan A, as it often has this season, failed for the Detroit Pistons on Thursday against the Brooklyn Nets.

An 18-point first-quarter lead evaporated in less than a quarter after the second unit subbed in, leaving the Pistons to trail the Nets by three at halftime.

So head coach Monty Williams turned to Plan B by doing something he has been reluctant to do for most of the season — lean hard on the team’s burgeoning guard duo, Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey

Cunningham and Ivey logged 38 and 39 minutes, respectively, and the Pistons rallied for a 118-112 defeat of the Brooklyn Nets. Both players topped 30 points — 34 for Ivey with a 6-for-9 performance on 3-pointers, and 32 for Cunningham (plus 11 assists) — and each tallied 13 in the final period.

Perhaps most importantly? One of them was on the floor for every minute of the second half.

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Williams’ rotation in his first season with the Pistons (10-52) has often had both on the bench at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second, leaving four or five reserves on the court. The Pistons have been routinely crushed in those minutes: Their bench (in all quarters) has a net rating of minus-3.9 this season, tied for worst with the San Antonio Spurs.

On Thursday at Little Caesars Arena, Cunningham exited with 2:38 remaining in the first quarter. Ivey was subbed out 24 seconds after, with Detroit leading by 16 points. When the duo returned with 8:48 to go until halftime, Brooklyn (25-38) had cut the lead to five, en route to a three-point lead at the break.

After halftime, though, it was a different story: Cunningham played the entire third quarter and Ivey played the entire fourth, leading the second unit as Cunningham rested. Detroit won the second half by nine points, with Ivey a plus-22 in that stretch and Cunningham a plus-19.

Williams, for mostly unknown reasons, has resisted staggering Cunningham and Ivey this season. His second units, which have recently featured rookie Marcus Sasser or the newly acquired Malachi Flynn as the lone ball-handler and Ausar Thompson as the lone remnant from the starting unit, have struggled.

Detroit simply lacks reliable shot creators outside of Cunningham and Ivey — it shows whenever they sit together.

The second unit looked much better in the second half, propped up by a strong night for Ivey, who scored 22 points after halftime with six 3-pointers overall. That came after making just nine of 51 attempts in his previous 10 games.

It was the second time in two weeks that Williams staggered Cunningham and Ivey in the second half. The other came last Friday against the Cleveland Cavaliers: Detroit won that half, too, but lost the game by 10 points. Against the Nets, however, they were the winners at the final buzzer.

“We have a debate, and it’s me vs. me,” Williams said after Thursday’s win. “I think about it all the time: Playing (Cunningham) 38 minutes every night is not something that we want to do, but tonight I felt like he needed to stay with that group longer to keep the momentum in the third. And then the group in the fourth quarter had to just hold it down until we could bring those guys back. It was just a gut (feeling) to leave him out there, and he had it going. And he draws a ton of attention.

“But just leaving (Cunningham) out there, I felt like we needed an anchor to settle that group a bit, especially when I started making subs.”

Last week, Williams argued against staggering the two backcourt mates, fighting against pairing Ivey, a slightly-built 6-foot-4 guard, next to another small guard (Flynn or Sasser) to give the Pistons a pair of smaller defenders. But Williams did just that against the Nets, as Flynn and Ivey and Flynn opened the fourth quarter.

It paid off — the Pistons held a lead until Cunningham checked back in with 7:33 left in the fourth. Ivey knocked down two 3-pointers while Cunningham was on the bench, extending Detroit’s lead to eight at the 10:03 mark. Cunningham picked up where Ivey left off, scoring the Pistons' next six points including a fastbreak dunk after a steal by Ivey.

Ivey then knocked down his final 3-pointer, giving the Pistons a 107-98 lead entering the final five minutes.

“When we’re on the floor together, there’s going to be shots open for us,” Ivey said. “Continuing to make the right play for the whole team is really good for us, and we gotta continue to watch film and see where we can improve. That’s the way that we wanted to finish it tonight.”

The Pistons’ future largely hinges not only Cunningham and Ivey improving, but also thriving together. Both are in the midst of their best offensive campaigns, but the season has been scant on nights like Thursday, with both guards hitting together and apart.

For the franchise's rebuild to succeed, it will need at least one of the pair to hit stardom. Ideally, both.

Perhaps Thursday will be seen as the first of many such performances by the duo.

For that to happen, though, it'll have to become Williams' Plan A.

“It’s mainly on me and (Ivey's) approach to the game, being aggressive and making plays for our team,” Cunningham said. “It can’t be a ‘my turn, your turn’ (situation.) It has to be both of us going at the same time. Whenever it hits our hands, we go.

“Me and him talk about it all the time. We’ve been wanting to do this and we’re just learning from each game. I feel like we’ve been getting better. The Miami game, we started well and it could’ve been a night like tonight. Tonight was really good for us and the rotations and stuff, that’s not my deal. But the approach to the game and what I do when I am in the game, that’s what I can control.”

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons coach wins by splitting Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey