Loss Leaves Heat with Empty Feeling

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - With the outcome all but decided, Udonis Haslem was kicking and punching the air, yelling at no one in particular and releasing a fit of rage normally reserved for postseason and must-win games.
This game against the Pistons didn't feel like a normal regular-season game for Haslem or any of his Heat teammates. That's why Thursday's 106-101 loss to the Pistons at the Palace easily was the most aggravating loss of the season.

''It's frustrating, because we played good enough to win,'' said Dwyane Wade, who led all scorers with 33 points, nine assists and six rebounds. ``You may say they made the plays to win it, and we made the plays not to win it.''

Both teams had played some of their best basketball of the season, setting up a dramatic, final few minutes in which the experienced, cohesive Pistons executed more critical plays than the Heat.

With Detroit leading 89-87 with 6:33 left in the game, Tayshaun Prince hit a desperation pull-up jumper with the shot clock expiring to extend the Pistons' lead to four, then followed that with a fast-break dunk that began when Ben Wallace blocked Shaquille O'Neal.

Following a timeout, though, the Heat put together an 8-2 run that tied the score at 95 with 4:11 left in the game.

A Prince jump shot was answered with a Haslem jumper. A Chauncey Billups shot was again answered by Haslem, tying the score at 99 with 2:06 remaining.

PISTONS ANSWER
That's when the Pistons put together back-to-back big plays that effectively put away the Heat. Billups, known to teammates as ''Mr. Big Shot,'' hit a driving layup to give the Pistons a two-point lead once again.

On the ensuing Heat possession, Wade, who had been hitting his jumper the entire game, rose up to take another jumper. But rather than release the shot, he tried to pass to Haslem for a jumper from the free-throw line. Haslem, though, already had committed to crashing the offensive board, and the pass ended up in Jason Williams' hands. Williams drove into the paint but missed a nine-foot floating jumper.

''It was probably the right play for that, just getting up in the air and have all the defenders look at me and I throw it back to the [power forward],'' Wade said. ``But Udonis was doing what he does and going for the rebound. He just hit a couple shots before that, so I was trying to feed the guy that was hot.''

With 1:23 remaining, the Heat still had an opportunity to pull out the win, but a stop was crucial. The Pistons ran a high screen-and-roll with Billups and Rasheed Wallace, and Billups used the screen to drive deep into the lane.
Billups was met by a collapsing Heat defense, so he passed to an open Wallace, who hit a three-pointer to extend the Detroit lead to 104-99 with 1:06 remaining.

''It was very simply a high pick-and-roll,'' Heat coach Pat Riley said. ``We run them to death with Dwyane and Jason, and Chauncey got in the lane, went up, froze everybody and he threw it back. There's a time when you simply have to pull triggers. Once a guy gets into the paint, all bets are off.''
Trailing by five, the Heat had two possessions to narrow the lead, but they resulted in a missed Wade jumper and a Haslem turnover as he tried to pass the ball in to O'Neal.

The Heat center finished with 26 points on 11-of-21 shooting but largely was used as a decoy down the stretch with Wade and Haslem both playing well. Williams had 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting, marking the first time this season the Heat had three players score 20 or more. The team as a whole shot 52.5 percent from the field, scored more points in the paint than Detroit (46-36) and grabbed five more rebounds than the Pistons.

The numbers only added to the frustration that already was high for Wade because of another physical run-in with Richard Hamilton. Wade was called for back-to-back offensive fouls while Hamilton defended him in the fourth quarter -- a trend that started last season when Hamilton attempted to defend Wade by draping his body on him as often as possible.</div>

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