"As Shane Battier left Monday's practice with a stomach flu, teammates could not let him leave the floor without their own diagnosis.

They did not quite accuse him of the first case of McGrady-itis suffered in years, but they did suggest that Battier needed to get ready for Tracy McGrady's first game in Toyota Center since the Rockets traded him to New York last February.

"We teased him on that," Chuck Hayes said. "We were saying 'Go get your rest. Mac's having his homecoming tomorrow.' "

Last season, when the Pistons and Rockets were locked in a tight game at Toyota Center, McGrady was greeted with a standing ovation when he came off the Rockets' bench for the first time that season for an eight-minute first-half stint.

He is still playing about eight minutes at a time and said he is still struggling to "adapt" and get in "game shape" following his March 2009 microfracture surgery. But tonight, when he takes the floor, McGrady will do so as a Piston after signing a one-year, $1.35 million free-agent contract with Detroit.

It is considerably less certain how he will be greeted compared to the previous meeting between the Pistons and Rockets.

McGrady said Monday "it feels good to be back home," but did not know or care how he will be received."

"I don't have no opinion, no suggestion at all," McGrady said. "Just another game on the schedule."

He described his tenure in Houston as "Great times, bad times, ups and downs, injuries. Definitely have some good memories; the 22-game win streak as a team, what I did individually against San Antonio.""