However, it will be at least two weeks before Hunter returns. (I believe I just heard this in the last Flip interview at mlive.com) The announcers keep saying his return is imminent, but thats just hype. Last I heard Hunter tweaked his ankle a tad a few days back. Nothing major, but even before this Flip had called reports of Hunter's return this week highly doubtful. Last thing Hunter had to say about it, just a week ago, is that he still did not have full range of motion in the ankle. So basically, don't hold your breath. Besides, for our Championship, Hunter was only activated for the last 3rd of a season. That worked then, and he is even older now. The shorter the span he plays, the fresher he will be for the playoff run.

Yup, I agree. I don't mind if he sits out all but the last 3 or 4 weeks of the regular season. Keep him as fresh as possible, but with enough time to play his way back into game shape and get comfortable with the guys again. A vet like Hunter doesn't need the regular season minutes as much as our young guys do.

i went out AND DID IT!!!!! I got NBA league pass and because i work for TWCable I get it for half price!!!WOOOOOOOOOOOO!! So my gift to my bruddahs and sistas is to record every game and not miss one either...When our starters miss a game, THEN I'll miss agame!!!My Bruddah!!

CHAT IS OPEN

http://www.pistonsforum.com/news/853...hat-debut.html

__________________
To all of my friends, comrades and companions at PF.com

Thank you for another great season!

60-43. beating them in every category (i don't know about points in the paint though). darko got some time and had a nice dish. if the bigs stay in foul trouble let's ee what he can do. i think flip will play him any way. i hope he makes use of it. pistons have not turned the ball over, charlotte creates a lot. ben has been great.

I see that the Human Victroy Cigar has played. This one is obviously in the bag for the Pistons or should I say humidor. LOL

Pretty amazing when you think about it. They are 6 consecutive wins behind the Tigers 35-5 start in '84. Didn't see the game, but the Bobcats had to really have missed Okafor tonight.

what's the trade rumor about with arroyo?

The Pistons got a decent lead early, but just could never put this team away until the 4th quarter. Lots of fun to watch this one, as we got to see some action from Darko, non-garbage time, for the first time in a long time. And man, did Darko ever do some nice ball handling. It should have been 4 assists if Davis would have expected that pass. Darn, that was a nice pass. On defense, Darko got beat by Brezec once. So what. Give me that a few more times and I bet Darko is stuffing his shots. Darko sorely needs experience, experience he can only get from playing in the game. But funny though, Darko's offensive game sure looked sharp tonight, contradicting this observation. To clarify, you can practice offense in practice somewhat, as you know where your teammates are going to go. But defense? You don't know what the other team is going to do, and then how your teammates are going to react to what they do. Great to see some minutes for Darko to gain the experience he so much needs.

Evans had a fine game. Quite a few rebounds. On a "found" ball situation, Evans calmly banked one in off the glass. Ben connected with him for an assist inside. He hit a triple. Thankyou very much, giving Arroyo yet another assist. He was also involved in a couple of fast breaks that went well for us. And he made a quick pass into the corner to Rip for that triple. The only drawback I can see to all this, its the third great game he has had in a long stretch, where each time its against a cellar dwellar. Hopefully, some of what he did tonight will translate into better performances when we face the Dallas's of this league.

Carlos Arroyo ran our offensive very smoothly. Lots of assists. No turns. Some offense from him to, with a cut inside, and making his free throws. Dyess hit some shots. Still that crazy pattern though, the more open he is, the more likely he is to miss the shot. Maybe hypno-therapy is needed. I don't know. Dyess would be totally awesome right now if he could just mange to hit the easy ones. The fantastic fade-a-ways he gots down just fine.

Delfino made a lot of difference, getting some steals and helping with the ball handling. But he only played in the rotation for the 1st half, and then in garbage time. Lets talk about garbage time. Two things that might surprise some people. One, Delfino played as the point guard, and did very, very well. We scored time after time. And the 2nd, Jason Maxiell was playing at small forward, and of course, completely dominating things out there. If only he could hit his free throws. Got to be a mental thing again, as he generally hits every other one. He has a great midrange game, no way he should be missing his free throws. He was all over the boards. Defensively, he looked just fine. Plenty of speed, and similar to Ben Wallace, those inspector gadget arms for bothering his man's dribble.

Dale Davis got into the game. Got some rebounds. Defended just fine. Hit one free throw, giving him 2 points for the year now. He played the end of the 1st half, and the end of garbage time.

Nothing any different really from Sheed, Ben, Rip, or CB. Rip hitting his shots. And note, two of them from feeds from Arroyo off curls. One pass was pretty incredible, zipped hard and right on the money.

The biggest story at the moment among the starters remains Tay establishing his outside shot. Tay hit several tonight.

We got a ton of assists. Can't wait to see the boxscore on that. I know we were on a pace for over 30 early though.

Charlotte enjoyed some pretty darn steady shooting tonight, or this game would have been a total laugher. We got to see Alan Anderson play a bit and make a shot or two, and Bernard Robinson made some impressive plays around the basket.

Charlotte was undermanned, and basically started 4 guards and Brezec. Kind of amazing they hung in there, but they used their quickness to get open on the outside, and like I said, they were hitting their shots. Still, this was no measuring stick for us or anything. Just an expected win. And yet stil, it was great to see us take the game very seriously, share the ball so well. And it was absolutely fantastic to welcome Darko back. I liked seeing Dale Davis getting some burn too.

Dyess was in early foul trouble, helping Flip make the decision to go to Darko and Dale in this game. Plus Ben had a scare, staining his knee after getting pushed and fouling down funny. No foul called. Clean it up Mr. Stern. There has got to be enough money to get more refs out there or something. Maybe a main ref in the booth who can hit a button, stopping play here and there for review. Clean it up before someone gets hurt.

Well, thats all I can think of for the moment. GO PISTONS!!!!!

Could almost make a case for Evans as player of the game. Although I would have preferred to see him dribble the clock down instead of stuffing it after the steal with 7 sec's left Those last 2 points gave him a new career high of 18 points. Previous high was 17 points. . Evans also came within 1 of his career high in offensive rebounds with 3.

Great to see the Pistons getting back their rebounding edge as 2nd chance points make the whole game so much easier. Ben Wallace has been leading the league in the month of Jan with 5.4 offensive boards a game. Team has regained a positive rebouding differerential in both total boards and offensive boards. Prior to this game it was +0.4 in total rebounds and +0.3 offensivly.

Is it just me or did Darko seem to play a lot smarter this game? And he did not slack off in garbage time. I hope getting Darko and Davis some mins is going to stick but it was most likely due to early foul trouble on Dyess and the Ben Wallace hard fall.

Nice win though. Team put away a team that they should have.