When the Cleveland Cavaliers took on the Detroit Pistons on Thursday, LeBron James decided to spend his final regular-season visit to the Palace at Auburn Hills, from which the Pistons will depart this summer, reminding all the Pistons fans in attendance just how much he’s tortured them over the years.

The 32-year-old James looked like he’d turned back the clock 10 years — calling to mind his remarkable performance in Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference finals, when he scored 25 of Cleveland’s final 29 points to help lead the upstart Cavs to an upset of the veteran Pistons — by throwing down dunk after dunk after dunk …

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… after dunk after dunk after …

It was a fitting farewell to the gym in which he ascended to a new level of NBA royalty a decade ago. But this time, much to the delight of those Michiganders he’s mystified over the years, the good guys won.

The Pistons weathered a monster LeBron game and some big-time buckets from Kyrie Irving, wresting control of the contest early in the fourth quarter and holding off a late flurry from the Cavs’ top guns to earn a 106-101 victory on Thursday, led by their inside-outside tandem.

Andre Drummond absolutely dominated the glass, outworking Cavs vacuum Tristan Thompson all night and pulling down 16 rebounds (seven on the offensive boards) to go with 20 points on 10-for-13 shooting and four assists in 36 minutes. Point guard Reggie Jackson — who missed the start of the season with knee tendinitis and has struggled mightily to regain his rhythm and form, reportedly leading head coach Stan Van Gundy to consider benching his $80 million point guard in favor of reserve playmaker Ish Smith — turned in his third strong game in the last week, scoring 12 of his 21 points and dishing four of his five assists in the fourth quarter to propel the Pistons over the finish line.

Drummond pulled down a big offensive rebound for a putback with just under 3 1/2 minutes to go to put Detroit up seven. Then, he flashed some playmaking skills by coming off a high screen for Jackson, taking a short-roll pass near the free-throw line, and firing the ball to the left corner to a waiting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who drilled a 3-pointer to extend the lead to eight.

After the Cavs cut their deficit to three a minute later, Jackson shook Iman Shumpert off the bounce with a right-to-left crossover, got into the paint, elevated over the outstretched arms of Shumpert and Channing Frye, and splashed through a floater from the left elbow to put Detroit up by five with 55 seconds to go. And it was Jackson who knocked down two free throws with four seconds left to ice the game for the Pistons, who bounced back brilliantly from a bad loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday to knock off the defending champs in the second game of a back-to-back.

Caldwell-Pope and Tobias Harris each chipped in 15 points, while second-year forward Stanley Johnson — who, one million lifetimes ago, claimed to be in LeBron’s head — added eight points and five rebounds. The Pistons have now won three of their last four and nine of 14 to improve to 32-33, moving a half-game ahead of the Chicago Bulls into seventh place in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

While Detroit seems to be finding its footing as it tries to secure a postseason berth, the conference-leading Cavs are working through a bit of a rough patch. They’ve now lost three straight and four of five to drop to 42-21, just two games ahead of the Boston Celtics in the race for the East’s top spot.

James authored another mammoth outing, finishing with a game-high 29 points on 12-for-22 shooting, 13 rebounds, 10 assists and two steals in 39 minutes for his eighth triple-double of the season (a career high) and the 50th of his illustrious career:

He scored or assisted on 17 points during a 22-5 third-quarter run that put Cleveland on top, 80-73, entering the fourth quarter. But then, after playing all 12 minutes of the third and 30 1/2 of the game’s 36 minutes to that point, LeBron sat down. And, as has been the case all year — and really, ever since he came back to Cleveland — the Cavs just couldn’t hold down the fort with the King on the bench.

The Pistons blitzed Cleveland to start the fourth, ripping off a 13-0 run to regain the lead behind the attacking of Drummond and Jackson, as the Cavs missed all five shots they took during that stretch. Three of those came from Irving, who finished with 27 points on the night …

… but who couldn’t carry the load when LeBron sat down, who missed a 3-pointer that would’ve gotten Cleveland within two with 47 seconds remaining, and who turned the ball over on a drive on the ensuing possession to help scuttle the Cavs’ comeback hopes.

All told, the Cavs outscored the Pistons by 18 points in the 39 minutes and five seconds during which LeBron was on the floor. They lost the game by five points. Now, I’m no math wizard, but I think that means Detroit outscored Cleveland by 23 points in 8:55 of non-LeBron time. That is not great …

… and it is also not new.

The Cavs have outscored opponents by 422 points in LeBron’s 2,183 minutes this year. They’ve been outscored by 162 points in the 1,813 minutes he’s sat. Non-LeBron Cavs lineups have performed, on average, worse than the league-worst Brooklyn Nets. And lineups with Kyrie running the show while both LeBron and Kevin Love, who’s still weeks away from returning after arthroscopic knee surgery, sit down have fared even worse, getting their doors blown off by a whopping 15.9 points per 100 possessions, according to nbawowy.com.

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The Cavs are now 5-5 since Love went down, and 17-14 since Jan. 1, just the seventh-best record in the East since the start of 2017. They’ve got J.R. Smith back now, which ought to provide a big boost to their wing rotation, but after more than two months on the shelf following thumb surgery, it’s going to take him some time to adjust, as evidenced by his 1-for-9 showing from the field in 19 minutes in his first game back. On top of that, Kyle Korver, who stepped into the bulk of Smith’s minutes after joining the Cavs in a January trade, is now dealing with a strained tendon in his left foot, casting his near-future availability into doubt.

Love’s still a ways away from returning. Cleveland has yet to get the significant playmaking boost it hoped from adding Deron Williams, who’s averaging 5.2 points and 4.2 assists in 20.2 minutes per game since his arrival. The Cavs will get no rim protection, rebounding, screen-setting or interior passing from Andrew Bogut, who broke his leg one minute into his stint in Ohio.

Vets Frye and Richard Jefferson are steady but limited contributors, while younger, more athletic rotation pieces like Shumpert and Derrick Williams can be erratic on a night-to-night basis. And as tremendous a ball-handler, finisher and shot-maker as Irving is, the Cavs just don’t ever seem to fully get into gear when LeBron and Tyronn Lue throw him the keys. Add it all up, and even when LeBron can and does provide damn near everything, you’ve still got the recipe for some slightly unsteady times.

As is the case with Cleveland’s distinguished competition on the West Coast, a late-winter slide isn’t necessarily a reason to rend garments. The Cavs might drop down a spot in the Eastern bracket, but as long as Love and Smith are healthy and in-rhythm by the postseason — and really, as long as LeBron is fully operational — they can win playoff games in any opponent’s gym, whether or not they hold home-court advantage. Even so, their current wobbles, and their persistent inability to find solid ground when LeBron hits the bench, ought to give Lue at least a little cause for concern — and give fans in Boston, Washington and Toronto a bit of hope — as we enter the stretch run.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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