Miami Heat 88 Detroit Pistons 92 (May 25, 2006)
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0 commentsWhat started out as a whuppin’ in Motown actually turned out to be a close game as Sheed, Rip and the Pistons tied their Survivor Series matchup at 1 game apiece.
First quarter, a total reverse from the last time these two squads met at the Palace. Deeetroit Basketball was in full effect, with the Bad Boys jumping out to an early lead. But not only were they scoring, but their defense came back from a brief vacation, holding the South Beach Boys to only 15 points in the first quarter.
It seemed like the Pistons finally woke up from their NyQuil inspired game one, where Chauncey and Rip were the only ones actually producing. There was a funny play in the second quarter, where Rip inbounded the ball off Shaq’s back into the hands of an opportunistic Ben Wallace, and from there, you could tell it was the Pistons’ night Hamilton was also doing his Reggie Miller impression, running the slalom through screens to get open, while Tayshaun and Big Ben turned into Windex guys, snagging boards and playing defense. The main cog in this one had to be Rasheed, who redeemed himself with a nice performance (16pts. 7 rebs. 3 ast.) to make up for his game one disappearance.
Miami had the same issues they had going on in the last game, a lot of Shaq, a truckload of Wade, and little to no support from the other role players. In game one, Employee Number 8 had a nice game, with 17pts and an un-Walker like 7 rebounds. Game two? No dice, returning to being the maddening clanker he’s capable of being going one for seven from behind the arc. Another no show was Udonis Haslem, who’s been fading thus far this series, and if Miami wants to have a realistic shot at putting away Detroit this guy HAS to come to work. The Diesel can’t do it all by himself on the boards, and if no one shows up, this could get ugly. Just ask Milwaukee.
A true gem, and shining star in this playoffs to me has been Dwayne Wade. It’s as if people only took notice of this guy because LeBron got bounced. He’s just as lethal, if not better at willing a game to his side than James is at this point. Miami was down 14, and in the fourth, they put 35 points on the board (including Wade’s ridiculous rainbow three) in crunch time and probably would have won that game (they cut it to two) had some bounces gone their way and a ton of that was sparked by Flash. Detroit is having a touch of “Wizards’ Disease”, where if they’re behind, the play their ass off, but let them get a lead and they pull out the deck chairs, coronas and just relax. In my opinion, this is how the Cavs won three straight against those guys, and its clear that the Pistons’ biggest enemy right now is procrastination on the court.
With Deeeetroit Basketball heading to South Beach, we can say that the winner of game three will be somewhat in control of this series. Both teams have the chance to be up 2-1 in sunny Miami in this next game, so we’ll see who’s trying to step up for this next one.
Date
May 25, 2006
