Playing each other for the second time in four nights, the list of players who didn’t play Wednesday at Van Andel Arena could have made up a legitimate NBA title contender: Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Nazr Mohammed and Amir Johnson for the Pistons; Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, Chucky Atkins and Nene for the Nuggets.

Add to them the list who made token appearances – like the Pistons’ entire starting frontcourt, idle after the first quarter – and you’d have a team good enough to compete for Olympic gold.

Playing in an old CBA town that provided some flashbacks for Pistons coach Flip Saunders, who cut his teeth as a coach in that league, and with several players ticketed for the minor leagues, the Pistons and Nuggets played at a CBA tempo, Detroit winning 119-110 to run its preseason record to 3-2 with three to play.

Saunders put his young players in position to win the game, too, sending Arron Afflalo and Sammy Mejia in for Flip Murray and Jarvis Hayes with just under two minutes to go and the Pistons clinging to a four-point lead, the two rookies joining fellow rookies Rodney Stuckey and Cheick Samb plus three-year veteran Jason Maxiell.

Stuckey forced Denver fouls on the next two possessions, making three free throws, and Afflalo forced the ball out of Denver gunner J.R.Smith’s hands on the intervening possession, leaving the Pistons up by seven with 45 seconds to go.

“I wanted to see them down the stretch,” Saunders said. “See how they’d react in situations, get them in there in the heat of the battle and have to make a play or try to make a defensive play. They’re going through the process and they’re learning some things.”

“(Smith) got it going a little bit,” Afflalo said of Denver’s fourth-year guard, fighting to be the backcourt starter alongside Iverson. “I’m finding out how I can defend in this league and be effective. I know that’s a big reason I was brought to the Pistons. It’s a confidence booster for coach to put me back in there.”

“I was just glad he called my name,” Mejia said. “I want to get back into a rhythm. I haven’t been able to play in game situations much and right now that’s the transition. I tried to be aggressive and I tried to take shots to get into the flow of the game and to get used to the speed and everything that comes along with the game.”

Stuckey finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists, making 7 of 8 free throws in the final two minutes and 10 of 11 for the game. Afflalo gave the Pistons 14 points and his typical solid defense. Mejia, only now getting over an ankle sprain suffered two weeks before camp opened, had four points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes. And Samb gave the Pistons eight points, nine rebounds and two blocks in 29 minutes.

It’s common for NBA teams to slash minutes for veterans in preseason games for two reasons – limiting their exposure to injury and using their minutes to evaluate reserves for rotation priorities and roster spots – but Nuggets coach George Karl took it to the extreme in Grand Rapids.

When the Pistons put together their12-0 run in the first quarter to seize control early, they did so against a Denver unit made up of players who’ll be lucky to stay in the league – Anthony Roberson, Jelani McCoy, Von Wafer, et al – never mind factor into the rotation.

The Pistons found themselves employing equally unlikely lineups, going for a long stretch of the second quarter with a grouping of Maxiell at center, Hayes and Mejia at forward and Stuckey and Afflalo at guard – the basketball equivalent of football’s empty backfield. That was OK with Saunders, who had a depleted frontcourt anyway and got to use his young players against a like lineup

“A lot of teams play like that,” Saunders said. “Spread the floor and try to outscore you. I thought overall we did a pretty decent job containing. We had some problems at times, but I thought the first half we were pretty good.”

Hamilton (ankle), Johnson (ankle) and Mohammed (calf) were unavailable to the Pistons and Saunders chose to give Billups the night off. That gave Stuckey the opening to play 40 minutes in by far his most extended look yet.

“It’s always a learning process for a young guard,” Saunders said of Stuckey. “When you’re playing early with the main guys, your temperament has to change when other guys come in. Now all of a sudden you have to be a main guy and try to create more for yourself. He did a nice job rebounding, distributed the ball, had some really nice passes. I like the things he did.”

Maybe the most encouraging performance of all was Samb’s. Granted, he wasn’t going against Shaq, but he grabbed rebounds above the crowd, blocked shots not many others could get to and looked in his comfort zone on each of his eight shot attempts.

“He played really well,” Saunders said. “The two games we’ve put him in there, he’s played really well. So we’ll continue to use him.”

Maxiell wound up with 25 points and 12 boards to lead the Pistons and Murray added 21. Smith finished with 33 for Denver and Bobby Jones had 26.