Game 25: Detroit Pistons @ New Orleans Hornets [Game Thread]

NBA Regular Season Game 25
	@
11-13 (3-9 away)		10-13 (8-3 home)
New Orleans Arena Hornets Blog: At the Hive
December 16, 2009  8:00 PM ET
TV: Fox Sports Detroit Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Probable starters:
Chucky Atkins	PG	Chris Paul
Rodney Stuckey	SG	Devin Brown
Jonas Jerebko	SF	Peja Stojakovic
Jason Maxiell	PF	David West
Ben Wallace	C	Emeka Okafor

Richard Hamilton tweaked his hamstring in yesterday's game and is unlikely to play tonight.   Ben Gordon and Will Bynum's statuses have been upgraded, but they are also unlikely to play tonight.  

New Orleans took both meetings from the Pistons a year ago, but Detroit has won seven of the last ten.  Chris Paul recently returned from his own ankle injury and has been playing like an MVP.  He's averaging 21 points and over 10 assists per game this season.  He scored 20 points and had 16 assists in the Hornets' last game, a loss in Dallas.

I can't give a all-out preview for this evening's game, but if you're looking for an interesting read before the game head over to DBB and read Mike Payne's piece on Charlie Villanueva.  CV's post game has been surprisingly very good.  Let's hope he continues to utilize it. 

Here is the scouting report via Pistons.com:

Tip off is at 8 PM EST.  Talk amongst yourselves.