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Anthony expected to return against Pistons

Mar 9, 2007 - 5:01 PM Detroit (37-22) at Denver (29-30) 9:00 pm EST

DENVER (Ticker) -- The Detroit Pistons open a five-game road trip on Friday when they meet the Denver Nuggets, who are expected to have Carmelo Anthony back in the lineup.

Trying to avoid their first three-game losing streak since late December, the Pistons still lead the Eastern Conference by two games over Cleveland.

The Pistons do play well on the road, having gone 18-10 away from The Palace of Auburn Hills. The own the fourth-best road mark in the league behind Phoenix, Dallas, and San Antonio.

Anthony, the league's leading scorer at 30.2 points per game, missed Wednesday's contest at Golden State to celebrate the birth of his first child.

The Nuggets missed Anthony as they endured a 110-96 loss to the Warriors. Allen Iverson scored 35 points to pace Denver.

"When you've got 30 points missing from your lineup everybody has a little more stress and little more responsibility to what they have to contribute to be successful and we came up short," Denver coach George Karl said.

Denver has lost nine of its previous 11 meetings with Detroit.