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Pistons-Spurs Preview

Jan 6, 2010 - 7:00 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Detroit (11-22) at San Antonio (20-12), 8:30 p.m. EDT

The Detroit Pistons are enduring their longest losing streak in almost 16 years, but coach John Kuester is confident the end is in sight. Facing the San Antonio Spurs, however, may not help.

The Pistons will try to halt their 10-game losing streak Wednesday night when they visit the Spurs, who hope to avoid their first back-to-back losses in nearly a month.

Detroit (11-22) fell for the 10th time in a row Tuesday, losing 98-93 at Dallas. The club hasn't had a losing streak of this length since dropping 13 straight to conclude the 1993-94 season and finish 20-62.

The current slide has put the Pistons in fourth place in the Central Division, one-half game ahead of last-place Indiana.

The Pistons haven't won since beating Golden State 104-95 on Dec. 12, extending their winning streak to five games. However, Kuester was happy with the team's effort against the Mavericks.

"Our guys competed," Kuester said. "I was very impressed. We're going through an interesting stretch. But we're going to find a way to get out of this hole."

Some of that confidence could stem from Detroit shooting 47.5 percent Tuesday after making 40.3 percent of its shots over the previous nine games.

Richard Hamilton also appears to be shaking off a sore right hamstring and a sprained right ankle that have forced him to miss all but seven games this season. The swingman turned in his best shooting performance of the season Tuesday, making 8 of 14 shots for 20 points. He's averaging 14.5 points over the last four games after missing the previous five.

"We've had our ups and downs this whole year," said guard Rodney Stuckey, who had 15 points against Dallas but missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer with 7.9 seconds left. "We've had a lot of injuries. But that's not going to let us get down on each other."

The Pistons, 3-14 on the road, split two games with the Spurs (20-12) last season, winning 89-77 in San Antonio on Dec. 2, 2008. They've won three of the last four meetings at AT&T Center.

The Spurs, though, have won six of seven at home with those victories coming by an average of 16.0 points. They'll try to continue that success as they open a four-game homestand following a 91-86 defeat at Toronto on Sunday, just their third loss in 14 games.

San Antonio is expected to have Tim Duncan back in the starting lineup after he was used off the bench for only the second time in his career against the Raptors in an effort to preserve him for later in the game. The 11-time All-Star responded by scoring 21 points with 12 rebounds Sunday, a night after he had 23 points in 36 minutes of a 97-86 win at Washington.

"He's played a lot of minutes," coach Gregg Popovich said. "He played more than we wanted (Saturday) so we just wanted to have him in the fourth quarter rather than the first. Not too much happens in the first quarter of NBA games."

Duncan leads the Spurs with 20.0 points and 10.2 boards per game. He averaged 20.5 points and 15.5 rebounds in two meetings with the Pistons last season.