The groin injury that forced him to miss eight games several weeks ago never completely healed. From A. Sherrod Blakely:
Hamilton said the injury has bothered him for the past few games, but the pain became more intense early on in Detroit's 98-89 win at Minnesota on Wednesday.
A decision on whether he will play won't be made until shortly before tip-off.
"Mentally, I'm going in saying that I don't want to miss that game," said Hamilton, who did not practice on Thursday. "It's tough. We did a lot of treatment today. Hopefully it will feel better tomorrow."
Dana Gauruder of the Oakland Press thinks moving to the bench may have aggravated the injury:
There's no hard evidence on this, but maybe being the sixth man had something to do with it. Before he accepted the role, Hamilton spoke of how he needed to keep warm. He's not used to sitting on the bench for the first eight or nine minutes, then try to make an immediate contribution. He no longer has the ability to ease into games and perhaps that idleness, followed by the quick bursts he makes, put too much strain on that area.