Power forward taxes Tayshaun

Tayshaun Prince is Michael Curry's ultimate good soldier, versatile enough to play four positions and amenable enough to agree to play all of them. The strained groin that's kept Rip Hamilton out the previous two games - and almost certainly will have him in street clothes again for Wednesday's New Year's Eve matinee with New Jersey - has returned Prince to his most familiar spot, small forward, after a run of small-ball lineup games in which he logged heavy minutes at power forward.

Given the glut of marquee small forwards in the Eastern Conference - LeBron James, Paul Pierce, Hedo Turkoglu, Luol Deng, Andre Igoudala, Richard Jefferson, et al - you'd think Prince might have welcomed the break.

But his body tells him otherwise.

He means this not as red meat for LeBron James, but, in fact, guarding him for 40 minutes doesn't grind on Tayshaun Prince physically as much as guarding his notoriously non-scoring teammate, Ben Wallace.

"It's not even close," he said of the difference to his body between guarding a small forward for 40 minutes or playing 40 minutes at power forward. "There's so many more things the big men have to do. Boxing out, your guy setting screens, fighting through screens and also bigs setting pick and rolls and you've got to help the guard and get back to the big and try to box him out. The little things. (Playing small forward) is not so much wear and tear on you as far as body contact. There's a lot of perimeter-oriented stuff. The only thing you worry about at the three is pick and rolls.

"At the end of the day, no matter what, you're going to be tired. But playing the four, or playing against Utah and going double overtime against Mehmet (Okur), those types of games, when you wake up the next day, you're going to feel it as opposed to guarding a strong three man. You just pretty much have to keep him in front of you and make them take jump shots. He's not crashing the boards every time so you have to box him out. When you're at the four, you have to do those types of things."

Prince suspects Hamilton, too, would begin to feel the difference if he spends significant chunks of games defending small forwards who try to post him up to take advantage of Hamilton's slight frame. Curry said he's mindful that it's not just the minutes Prince plays - and he's averaged 40 over the past 10 games, a stretch that began with the lineup switch - but how many minutes he plays relative to the time he spends at power forward.

"There's a lot of wear and tear to bang," Curry said. "It's tough to play 82 games on that low block. Tay gives up a lot of weight when he gets down there, so we have to pick and choose how often we put him there and what matchups we put him in down there. But he's done a good job for us - an excellent job, actually."

Given the defensive success the Pistons have had without Hamilton - a double-digit win at Milwaukee, holding the Bucks to 30 percent shooting to break their three-game win streak; and Monday's win over Orlando to beat the NBA's hottest team, holding the Magic to 40 percent and 19 points under their average - it might portend a return to the more traditional lineup with Prince spending more time at small forward.

Curry, as he did after the Orlando win, again at practice on Tuesday talked about the defensive efficiency of the lineup with Stuckey at point guard and two big men in the game.

"I'm not sure how many games this year we've had Stuckey starting at the one and we've had two bigs on the court and Tay starting at the three," he said. "We've been pretty good. Our defense is how well we defend the ball, first and foremost, and Stuckey is our best guard at defending the ball. Then it comes to the bigs - how they defend the pick and roll and protect the basket. Having two bigs, you're at your best at defending. Even when you do make mistakes, you've got the other one helping clean up at the basket. And Tay is our most versatile defender.

"Those four are the key. And then, whoever we have in at that two-guard spot - sometimes it's been Rip, (Allen Iverson), (Arron) Afflalo - we've been pretty good defensively. When we've had those other combinations, we're not nearly as good and that's what we've got to get better at."

• Hamilton received treatment and worked with strength coach Arnie Kander, but did not participate in Tuesday's practice. Antonio McDyess, who took a hard shot to the ribs in Monday's game and had X-rays taken afterward, went through practice and then received treatment. He's expected to play agaisnt New Jersey.