When the Pistons finished the last of them with Friday night’s 110-105 win over New Jersey, he was happier to see it go than he was to see it arrive.

“Oh, man, I’m glad this month is over,” he said. “This was a tough, tough month.”

It was a month that saw Billups miss two games and most of a third with a strained left groin muscle. March saw the Pistons play without Rasheed Wallace for five games – three with a foot injury and two due to suspension. March saw Lindsey Hunter miss 10 games when the NBA suspended him for a positive drug test as a result of taking one of his wife’s diet pills. March saw Chris Webber miss two games and play several others with lingering effects from both a viral and a bacterial infection.

And March saw Rip Hamilton miss the last four games with both flu-like symptoms and the after-effects of a mild concussion.

That was Saturday’s news, when Hamilton skipped the Pistons’ brief practice in preparation for Sunday afternoon’s Miami visit to The Palace of Auburn Hills but worked out afterward under the supervision of strength coach Arnie Kander.

“One of the doctors I went to see said, ‘Did you get hit in the head lately?’ ” Hamilton said. “I never woke up in the middle of the night with my head banging like that.”

As best Hamilton can figure, the concussion occurred two weeks ago when the Pistons returned from their five-game Western road sweep to play Dallas in another Sunday matinee. Hamilton got jolted twice in that game – once when Webber inadvertently elbowed him, causing a three-stitch gash above his eye, and again when Dallas center Erick Dampier shoved him from behind under the basket and he crashed hard to the floor.

Hamilton will again be a game-time decision for Miami, which continues to play – and do more than merely survive – since losing Dwyane Wade in February to a dislocated shoulder that he continues to rehabilitate with the expectation that he’ll be cleared in time for the playoffs. Miami entered Saturday’s games as the East’s fourth seed, but could finish anywhere from third to sixth.

The Pistons, meanwhile, will take a 46-26 record into the game and appear to be in good shape – assuming no more run of injuries, illness or suspensions – to nail down the No. 1 seed. Cleveland is three back in the loss column with 10 games to play.

For all the adversity they faced in March, the Pistons came out of it with a 10-7 record.

“I’d like to say we came through it unscathed,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. “The biggest thing, when you look back, I don’t know if there was a game we played in the last three weeks we didn’t have a chance to win. We were competitive in games and that was a positive, considering the sickness, the injuries we had. Now we’ve got to gear up. We’ve got 2½ weeks to get geared up and get fine tuned for what it’s all about.”

Their April begins just as their March did – against Miami. In addition to battling through the rash of player absences, what made the Pistons’ winning March so remarkable was the fact they began it 1-3 with a road split against Miami and Memphis followed by consecutive home losses to Golden State and Cleveland before they hit the road for five games against Western Conference teams that appears likely to be remembered as the most critical stretch of the season.

“We had some ups and downs, but it was a good test for our team,” Billups said of March. “We had a lot of guys go down – sickness and injury. It’s been a tough month, but I’m glad it’s over. It was great for us to come out like we did, especially the way we started it before we went on that West Coast trip. We dropped those couple of games – it didn’t look so great.”