<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MIAMI -- All week long, all day long, every minute counting down to Monday night's tipoff of the Eastern Conference finals, all eyes were on Shaquille O'Neal. So how did the Heat forget him when it mattered most? Before Detroit's 90-81 win, there was a TNT report showing what syringe O'Neal used to draw blood from his bruised thigh. There was a cheer from the sellout crowd when the scoreboard changed to show him starting. There even was our first Dumb Media Playoff Moment earlier in the day -- a helicopter fly-over of his home by Channel 10. So how did they lose O'Neal at game's end? He made 9 of 14 shots in the game -- and still got just six shots in the second half? And just three in the fourth quarter? And only one in the final 41/2 minutes, when the night was up for grabs and the Heat desperately needed points? It was 82-81 Detroit then. And the Heat never scored again. All credit goes to Detroit, of course. It smothered the Heat shooters in the final minutes the way you smother a fire, suffocating it of air, keeping the pressure on and then celebrating as the final embers of hope fade away.</div> Source
