Sourcereview<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Wednesday, March 22, 2006Pistons vs. Heat: Game 67The Pistons will face Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat on Wednesday, March 22nd at the Palace of Auburn Hills at 8:00 p.m. (tv20 Detroit) in a rematch of the 2005 Eastern Conference Finals. Detroit (53-13) has split with the Heat (45-22) this season, winning once at home on December 29th 106-101. Then on February 12th the Pistons lost in Miami 100-98. The Heat?s Dwayne Wade led all scorers with 37 points including his team?s final 17 points and the go-ahead jumper with 2.3 seconds remaining, while Shaquille O?Neal chipped in 31. Chauncey Billups led the Pistons with 29 points and 10 assists. The Pistons have won six of the last seven games against the Heat in Detroit. Miami has already locked up a return trip to the playoffs, but keep on rolling during regular season play. They?ve won 15 of their last 17 and will be heading into Detroit winning five straight on the road before losing last night to Minnesota. The Heat maintain a 10.5 game lead over Washington for the top spot in the Southeast Division and are second in the Eastern Conference, nine games behind Detroit. The Heat are finally starting to mesh well together after making quite a few moves this off-season. The Heat acquired swingman James Posey and point guard Jason Williams from Memphis, as well as forward Antoine Walker from Boston in a blockbuster five-team trade that sent Rasual Butler and Eddie Jones to the Cleveland Cavs and Keyon Dooling to the Orlando Magic. The team also signed free agent point guard Gary Payton from the Celtics and forward Jason Kapono from the Bobcats. The newcomers have given the Heat plenty of support this season as the team is leading the Southeast division and have the second best record in the conference. However, the Heat, who led the East with a 59-23 record last season, still look to their core duo ? breakout star Dwyane Wade and All-Star center Shaquille O?Neal ? to lead the team to success. Wade is leading Miami with 27.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game. O?Neal, Miami?s big man, has continued to dominate the middle as he has since he entered the league in 1992. The 7-1, 325-pound center will be tough to stop on the low block. His 19.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game have kept the Heat dominating the post. Miami is second in the league in rebounding with 43.0 per game. The Heat are coming off a 96-100 loss at Minnesota on Tuesday night with Dwayne Wade leading all scorers with 35 points and eight assists. Shaquille O?Neal sat out in Minnesota, but is listed as probable for tonight?s game in Detroit. The Pistons, on the other hand, are coming off a 91-84 victory over Atlanta on Sunday. Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace led all scorers with 26 points and eight rebounds. Miami will travel to Detroit to play the second of back-to-back road games on Wednesday night.</div><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>John Hammond?s Three Keys to Success: Get the inside scoop from Pistons Vice President of Basketball Operations John Hammond. See what the Pistons need to do to be successful against the Miami Heat. 1. Rebound, rebound, rebound:One of the Heat?s strengths is rebounding. Led by O?Neal (9.1 rpg), Udonis Haslem (7.7 rpg), and Alonzo Mourning (5.6) inside, Miami currently ranks second in the league for rebounds per game with 43.0. Their opponents on the other hand rank 26th in the league with 39.06 per game. The Pistons must find a way to grab rebounds and limit second-chance shots. 2. Contain Dwyane Wade:Twenty-four year-old Dwyane Wade managed to carry the Miami Heat to game seven of the 2005 Eastern Conference Finals in his sophomore season in the league. Wade, who earned All-NBA Second Team and All-NBA Defensive Second Team honors last season and a spot in the starting lineup of the 2006 All-Star game, is the biggest scoring threat on the Heat. This season, Wade is averaging 27.8 points (fifth in the league), 5.8 rebounds, and 6.7 assists in 39.0 minutes per game while shooting 50.1% from the field for Miami. The Pistons must also keep Wade off of the free-throw line. The Miami guard accounts for nearly 41% of the Heat?s made free-throws on 78.1 % shooting (549-703). He also leads the league in free throw attempts and has made the second-most shots from the stripe. Containing Wade will be a difficult but important task for the Pistons defense on Wednesday night. 3. Limit Miami points in the paint:Miami big man Shaquille O?Neal has dominated the middle since he entered the league in 1992. O?Neal?s brief time with the Miami Heat has been no different as he averaged a double-double and shot a league-best 60.1% from the field in the 2004-05 season. The 7-1, 325-pound center will be tough to stop on the low block. Unlike with Wade, the Pistons must get Shaq to the line early and often. At 45.5% from the line, the Pistons must get Shaq to shoot free-throws each quarter that Miami gets into the bonus and Shaq catches the ball in a scoring area.</div>My keys to the game are...1. if Shaq plays-bring out Davis to see how he does against him, since that is one of the most important reasons why we got him.2. Shoot good shots-No need to take an excessive amount of threes and force shots up...3. Rebound the ball-Just rebound like we're capable of doing.4. Contain Wade-Tayshaun needs to stick with this guy like he is capable of...This is going to be a good one-i hope on the Pistons favor...On ESPN and WB20 @ the Palace @ 8:00
Don't count out Alonzo. The guy has done a great job without Shaq. The Pistons have been struggling lately so I wouldn't be shocked if the Heat won.
Yeah Zo has been playing great,very good acquisition,anyways I see Shaq playing and I have a feeling Heat are gonna take this one home.
Man Posey is a dirty player going underneath Prince. That was a dangerous play there. Heat up 21-19 after the first quarter.
Yeah they looked like this a lot of last year. Their offense is getting stagnant because of not having a low post prescence. It is similar to Dallas.
The Heat lost because Shaq got the ball 5 times in the fourth quarter. Literally, I counted. DWade pulled a <Censored> Jalen Rose. He and Antoine Wlker were the reason Miami lost
Also got to give credit to Detroit's defense. They decided to turn it on in the second half and got the job done. They seem to get the job done in big games but get lazy against the hawks, jazz, and etc. in the league.
Can't believe we lost,we were up through most of the game.Nicely played by Pistons but come Playoffs you won't be getting any wins against the heat
^ Not sure I read this right. NO wins vs. the Heat in the playoffs?!? You are kidding me. We just beat this team again. To say we won't even win one game against them is not only a dumb thing to say, but it is a lie. Pistons, will beat the Heat in 6 games.22-0 points off turnovers for the Pistons. That is HUGE. Chauncey showed why he is an MVP candidate when he lead the comeback in the mid third onward. Antonio McDyess was hitting big shots in mid 4th quarter. Lindsay Hunter was hounding Dwyane Wade, and D Wade was forcing shots in the fourth.The one thing I don't get is as Mavsfan pointed out, Shaq who was playing great all game never seems like he gets the ball at the end of games. If I were him I would sit down with Pat Riley about that. Even I as a Piston fan was wondering why he never got the ball.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Pistonfan11 @ Mar 23 2006, 06:35 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>^ Not sure I read this right. NO wins vs. the Heat in the playoffs?!? You are kidding me. We just beat this team again. To say we won't even win one game against them is not only a dumb thing to say, but it is a lie. Pistons, will beat the Heat in 6 games.</div>Sarcasm my friend,lemme tr sayig the above again..The heat will OWN the pistons better?
Ben did good D on Shaq. Zo going out did hurt them (he gets a block then gets hurt, lol). But what makes me mad (and I don't like either team this year, because I am a Cavs fan) is that they called a foul on Mcdyess for doing "something" to Shaq while Shaq was shooting. Mcydess wasn't even close to touching Shaq and Rasheed (who was the one guarding Shaq) didn't foul him either, I hate when the refs make terrible calls like that, even if I don't like either team this year.
I dont see any team "owning" the pistons. There is not one team that i see beating the pistons in a 7 game series this year especially since we are going to lock up home court throughout. The pistons are just too dynamic. We have an awesome outside game with Billups, Sheed, Rip and even Tay. We can go down low with Sheed and Billups can own any PG in the league down in the post. Rip Hamilton will have DWade so worn out by game 3 that he will be inefective and if you throw the 3 headed Monster at shaq as well as bringing in Cato and Davis off the bench i do not see the Heat winning more than 1 game against the pistons. Now that is just on paper, and we all know that the pistons sometimes take a night off so you have to acount for that so i say the pistons Beat the Heat in 6 games.The thing about this years team that makes them different from last year is that we have a solid bench. Lindsey Hunter is a headache for anyone who has to take the ball up the court against him, Evans can bring energy and an outside shot. Delfino is the next Ginobili if he can ever get time and then you can bring on Dyess who is finally coming on and Cato and Davis if you need them. I see the pistons having a 9-10 man rotation in the playoffs with the Starting 5, then having them come off the bench like this 1. Dyess 2. Delk 3. Hunter 4. Delfino 5. Evans (of course that will be mixed up with foul trouble and when we play the heat) But by far the X-factor this year is going to be Delk and Hunter. If we can take off Rip and Billups and not go into an offensive lull and have our leads cut down then we can rest Rip and Billups so they can go longer. I also see Tayshaun being an X-factor, if he can play and not be so fatigued i think we have the championship wraped up.
