The small lineup had its usual set of problems.

And head coach Michael Curry admits he too was not on top of his game Friday night.

Each factor played a role in Detroit suffering one of its worst home losses this season.

"We got our tails kicked tonight," Curry said. "I have to do a better job of getting them ready to perform at a high level. We didn't do it tonight, and it starts with me."

With the loss, the Pistons (24-18) are 13-8 at home, which exceeds the total number of home losses from all of last season.

Home. On the road. This year, it does not matter.

Poor defense

The Pistons cannot beat anyone, anywhere, when their defense plays as poorly as it did Friday.

Far too often, Dallas' shooters had open or lightly contested shots.

When the game clearly was out of reach early in the fourth quarter, Detroit players began jacking up one bad shot after another to further compound what already was one of this season's worst

offensive performances.

Dallas spent most of the game shooting better than 60 percent from the field before a slew of missed shots late in the contest left the team with a moderate 54.9 percent shooting performance.

"A team shouldn't come into our building and shoot 60-plus percent," Detroit guard Arron Afflalo said. "As Pistons, that's something you're supposed to pride yourself on: defense. And we definitely have to get back to that mantra."

Slow start

Detroit won the opening tip, but that would be about as good as things would get for the Pistons in the first quarter.

The Mavericks buried one jumper after another, with most of the damage coming from Dirk Nowitzki. He scored 10 of his game-high 26 points in the first quarter.

Dallas also got a strong start from Josh Howard, who scored 11 of his 22 points in the first quarter.

Hurting Detroit even more was Rodney Stuckey and Allen Iverson shooting a combined 4-for-11 in the opening quarter. They finished with a combined 21 points on 8-for-21 shooting.

The Pistons trailed 31-25 after the first, a modest deficit that would have been much greater if not for the seven-point, four rebound effort by Amir Johnson.

Dallas maintains lead

But Johnson, who didn't score the rest of the game, soon found himself on the bench after picking up his third personal foul with 91 seconds to play in the quarter.

Dallas continued to surge ahead in the second quarter with its second unit on the floor. The Mavericks led by as many as 12.

But Detroit slowly crawled back into the game, with Richard Hamilton leading the way off the Pistons bench for the second consecutive game. He led all Detroit scorers with 17 points.

Hamilton's scoring helped the Pistons trim Dallas' lead to as little as two points.

But the Mavericks super sub Jason Terry kept Dallas in the lead by coming up with one big play after another at both ends of the floor.

Terry scored all 14 of his points in the second quarter.

Even with Terry and the rest of the Mavericks shooting around 60 percent most of the first half, Detroit trailed by just two points following a driving, left-handed layup by Stuckey.

That would be as close as the Pistons would get, with the Mavericks closing out the quarter on a 12-2 run to take a 63-51 halftime lead.