Even playing reduced minutes doesn't sit well with Prince.

"Hopefully these games will go by fast, so I can get back to the normal situation," he said. "There are going to be games where I'll play 30 minutes but the ones I don't, I'm going to be really cheering for my team to keep the lead. Because if we don't have the lead, I'm going to want to go back in. That's just how I am."

With that Cal Ripken Jr.-style approach to playing, Prince is the owner of the league's longest current consecutives games started streak. He started his 346th consecutive game on Tuesday. A one-game league suspension ended Bruce Bowen's streak of 500 consecutive starts when the Spurs visited Detroit last month.

The Pistons rested three of their starters at Minnesota Tuesday, but getting Prince out of the lineup is going to be a hard sell.

"He doesn't want to get out of rhythm," coach Flip Saunders said.

Prince has also appeared in 404 consecutive games, second only to Philadelphia's Andre Miller (441). Prince, whose team plays New Jersey at The Palace Friday night, claims that he's not simply trying to pad his streak by playing out the string.

"The streak is not important at all," he said. "What's important to me is that I go out there and play every game to help my teammates win. It's not about trying to set a record or do anything like that."

The Pistons have the luxury of tapering off because they're virtually locked into the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. President of basketball operations Joe Dumars advised Saunders to start giving his regulars some nights off.

"We've done things to take care of business," Saunders said. "We need to get rejuvenated for the playoffs."

PISTONS 94, TIMBERWOLVES 90: All-Stars Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace got the night off and the Pistons still beat the downtrodden Timberwolves Tuesday night.

Rookie Rodney Stuckey did his best Billups impersonation as the fill-in starting point guard, scoring a career-high 27 points and making all the big plays in the late going.

"It's good for us," said Stuckey, who had 12 fourth-quarter points. "It gives Coach confidence in us and it gives the vets confidence in us."

The Pistons trailed by 21 in the first half and didn't take a lead until rookie guard Arron Afflalo made two free throws with 4:10 left.

Stuckey scored seven of the Pistons' last eight points. His 17-footer jumper over Minnesota point guard Randy Foye with 45.3 seconds left gave his club a 90-88 lead.

After the Timberwolves cut it to 91-90, Stuckey snookered Foye into fouling him. He made just one of the two free throws, but forward Amir Johnson tipped the rebound back to Stuckey, who got fouled again by Foye. Stuckey made both of those free throws to cement the victory.

Tayshaun Prince added 16 points for Detroit while center Al Jefferson led the Timberwolves with 26.