AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope only needed to make two free throws to achieve the first 40-point game of his NBA career.

Both his foul shots with 1:01 left failed to drop.

Instead, he settled for a career-high 38 points and the Detroit Pistons snapped an eight-game losing streak to the New Orleans Pelicans with a 118-98 victory Wednesday night at The Palace.

"I was trying to go for 40," he said.

He might remember the missed free throws most of all, claiming sheepishly that it ruined his night.

"Yes, it did," he said with a grin. "I had fun out there. My teammates, they got me to 38. They got me open when a play was called for me. When I wasn't open, I made plays for them."

The fourth-year guard's previous high was 31 points against Boston on Dec. 16, 2015. He made 12 of 18 field-goal attempts, including eight 3-pointers.

"He had it going tonight, to say the least," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. "It's pretty amazing that he got to that point and then missed the two free throws. He didn't miss much of anything else."

There was nothing to suggest Caldwell-Pope would erupt in that fashion. He had scored a combined 37 points over the previous three games, shooting 26.8 percent from the field, after missing four games with a rotator cuff strain.

"It's 100 percent. I haven't felt any pain in my shoulder," he said. "I've run through enough screens to know it's back to normal."

Detroit (22-27), which lost its last three games, recorded its first victory over New Orleans since Feb. 4, 2012. Tobias Harris had 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists off the bench for Detroit, while Andre Drummond contributed 17 points and six rebounds.

Pistons reserve guard Ish Smith added 15 points and seven assists. Detroit trailed by eight in the third quarter, when Van Gundy brought in four reserves and took out all of his starters except Caldwell-Pope.

Detroit regained the lead by the end of the quarter and outscored the Pelicans 35-17 in the fourth.

"They didn't help us turn it around; they turned it around," Van Gundy said of the bench. "They just turned the entire game, turned the entire energy. I thought our bench played well in the first half against their bench. What was impressive in the second half was they turned it around against their starters."

Anthony Davis led the Pelicans (19-31), who lost three in a row, with 31 points and 12 rebounds. Davis scored a career-high and franchise-record 59 points in his most recent visit to The Palace last February.

Jrue Holiday supplied 22 points and 11 assists, and Terrence Jones chipped in 11 points for New Orleans.

Detroit outscored the Pelicans 22-9 in fast-break points and scored 26 points off 15 turnovers.

"We had live ball turnovers," Pelicans forward Dante Cunningham said. "Live balls, they pretty much scored on all of them. It's hard to get your defense set when they running back two-on-one and three-on-two, things like that."

Coach Alvin Gentry echoed Cunningham's comment.

"This is not a fast-break team but we turn the ball over and they get 22 fast-break points because most of them come off our turnovers," he said. "Until we take care of that problem right there, we're going to continue to be standing there and doing this (talking about a loss) on a lot of nights."

The Pelicans scored 12 consecutive points midway through the third to gain a 74-66 lead.

Behind Caldwell-Pope, the Pistons finished the quarter on a 17-7 run to regain the lead at 83-81.

Smith scored five of the first seven points in the fourth, lifting Detroit's lead to 90-81.

When Caldwell-Pope fired in a three with 6:09 left, the Pistons' advantage increased to 101-87. The Pelicans never mounted a serious threat from that point.

NOTES: The Pistons assigned F Henry Ellenson and SGs Darrun Hilliard and Michael Gbinije to their D-League affiliate in Grand Rapids, Mich. ... Pelicans C Anthony Davis reached the 40-point mark five times this season. He is averaging 27.9 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks. ... Pistons C Andre Drummond entered the game tied with Los Angeles Clippers C DeAndre Jordan for the league rebounding lead (13.8 per game). Drummond topped the NBA in that category last season at 14.8 per game. ... New Orleans committed the sixth-fewest turnovers but coach Alvin Gentry believes his club is too mistake-prone. "We have to stop punishing ourselves," he said. "When we don't make those mistakes, we're a very good basketball team." ... Detroit plays nine home games in the month of February. ... The Pelicans rank second in blocks at six per game. Golden State (6.4) is the league leader.