The Pistons don’t take Lindsey Hunter out of mothballs very often, but they don’t have to do much to freshen him up when they do. In arguably the Pistons’ two most impressive wins of the season – at Boston in December and at San Antonio on Thursday night – it was Hunter who made a handful of key plays in the fourth quarter to ultimately tilt momentum. There were 10 games between those wins – and Hunter wasn’t even in uniform for any of them, a streak that coincides with Rodney Stuckey’s return from a broken hand. After consecutive losses to Boston and Dallas, it was as close to a must-win situation as the Pistons have faced yet. After falling behind 13-8, they went on a 22-2 run over the final half of the first quarter and built a 20-point lead in the second quarter. But the Spurs cut it to five late in the third when Flip Saunders brought Hunter off the bench to start the fourth. He finished with seven points and two steals in six minutes as the Pistons wound up pocketing a 90-80 win over the Spurs, who were 17-2 at home.

SAUNDERS: “They had a couple of bad performances (against) Boston and Dallas, so I think there was no question that we were going to come out tonight with great focus and play well. It’s usually tough to play against a great team like San Antonio and get up in points like that and maintain that, because you then have to withstand runs, especially while playing on their home court.”

RASHEED WALLACE: “We could lose five or six in a row and it wouldn’t matter. Nobody is going to hang their heads and mope around. Everybody in this locker room wants to win too much. Every guy in this locker room has won at some level – high school, college, here, one level or another. They are all winners.”

SPURS COACH GREGG POPOVICH: “Tonight we played 42 minutes, not 48, and that’s not good enough against a really good team like Detroit.”

The story of the game in Pistons red, white and blue

– Hunter was only in uniform because Stuckey bumped his broken left hand in the Wednesday loss at Dallas. The 10-game hiatus apparently didn’t erode any of his defensive skills or veteran aplomb. In six minutes, Hunter chased down a loose ball to retain Pistons possession, deflected a ball away from Manu Ginobili to cause a jump ball, hit two free throws after getting fouled while driving to the basket, knocked down a triple to give the Pistons breathing room at 14 points at a time baskets were coming grudgingly, drew an offensive foul against Jacque Vaughn, and stripped Tony Parker to score a breakaway layup. Nice night. See you in 10 games, Lindsey.

SAUNDERS: “I thought we would play him for a couple of minutes because of who the Spurs had, Ginobili and those people. Lindsey was great. Stuckey hurt his hand a little bit, so we went with Lindsey and he made big free throws, made a big three, and defensively got into Ginobili and just didn’t let him do what he needed to do.”

Blue Collar – Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton not only gave the Pistons big numbers offensively, combining for 41 points, but they also were outstanding across the board. Hamilton stayed closer to Parker than Eva Longoria does, swapping defensive assignments with Chauncey Billups (13 points, five boards, six assists, four steals) and harassing the Spurs whippet-quick point guard into a subpar night. Parker finished with 12 points by scoring late, but he was 1 of 9 for three points through three quarters. Hamilton scored 18 points on 7 of 13 shooting while being guarded by perennial All-Defensive team member Bruce Bowen. Wallace gave the Pistons 23 points, 15 boards and two blocks and also was superb against Tim Duncan, despite Duncan’s big numbers – 24 and 15. On a night Parker and Ginobili (nine points, 3 of 12) were both off their games, the Spurs went relentlessly to Duncan.

SAUNDERS ON WALLACE: “I thought he had a competitive fire tonight, but besides that he had good composure. In the first quarter, he was phenomenal – around the basketball, taking shots and blocking shots. He just played a great all-around basketball game tonight.”

BILLUPS ON WALLACE: “There is no question that Rasheed is our number one option. He does things that no one else can do. He plays smart, he doesn’t try to shoot over the double teams, he makes the right plays. When he is locked in the way he was tonight, we use him as much as we can.”

Red Flag – Vaughn hasn’t hung around the NBA for 11 years for his offensive skills, but Stuckey had enough difficulty dealing with the pressure Vaughn applied that Saunders decided to leave Tayshaun Prince in the game with him for all of his seven first-half minutes to share ballhandling duties and get the Pistons into their offense. Either it was an aggravation of his hand injury or it revealed Stuckey’s inexperience against pressure defense – either way, a concern for the Pistons.

Pivotal plays, frozen moments and lasting images from a gut-check win

Highlight Reel – The Pistons haven’t been a particularly good transition team for the past few seasons, often coming up empty when they have a numbers advantage by making poor decisions. So Hamilton streamlined the decision-making with an eye-popping move in the first quarter during the Pistons’ 16-0 run when he evaded a mid-court steal attempt by Parker by going behind his back, then hanging in mid-air long enough before releasing his layup that Bowen flew past him while trying to swat the ball out of his hand.

Stellar Defense – On a night the Spurs got so little from mainstays Parker and Ginobili, Duncan provided his usual gaudy numbers. But it was more because the Spurs had nowhere else to turn than the defense played on him by Wallace and Antonio McDyess, who fouled out with just six points but didn’t let it affect his defense. Both Pistons big men had several superb defensive stands against Duncan, who almost never gets a shot blocked but had three swatted away in this one.

Welcome Back – Prince looked more like the player the Pistons have come to appreciate for his versatility and unflappability than the player who was 4 of 19 in the consecutive losses to Boston and Dallas and didn’t contribute much in other statistical categories, either. Prince finished with 17 points, 13 in the first half when the Pistons put the Spurs in a deep hole.

PRINCE: “It’s been a while since I’ve gotten good touches like the ones I got tonight. I got the ball down in the block. I found a comfort zone early as far as positioning and then just tried to keep that in Chauncey’s mind. I got some good touches and quality shots.”

A little perspective on a win that stopped a two-game losing streak

No matter how steely a team’s confidence and resolve might be, occasional affirmation is more than nice – it’s necessary. It wasn’t exactly a do-or-die game in San Antonio, but the losses to Boston and Dallas raised the stakes for this one. You never want to put that much on a regular-season game against the defending NBA champions at their place – where they came in with the league’s best home record – but the circumstances dictated as much for the Pistons. Complicating their task, they were dealing with the second half of a back-to-back while the Spurs had been off since Monday night. There’ll be other memorable wins and compelling storylines to the season ahead, but this one is guaranteed to find its way into the season’s highlight reel.