GAME 7: Pistons 88 – Heat 82
MIAMI – A wincing Dwyane Wade gave the Heat all his strained rib muscle would allow; he gave Game 7 a third quarter to remember. He could not, however, give the Heat a victory – or much of a fourth quarter.
The Pistons, 88-82 winners in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals last night, move on to face San Antonio starting Thursday in the NBA Finals. The Heat, meanwhile, face more playoff heartbreak despite a heroic showing by Wade, who extended his pained body beyond the limits in scoring 20 points – but none in the final quarter.
“This is what we do, this is what we do,” screamed the Pistons’ Richard Hamilton, who led Detroit with 22 points, in the locker-room shower.
While Rasheed Wallace added 20 points for Detroit, the Heat’s Shaquille O’Neal (27 points, nine rebounds) didn’t do enough to win the Eastern Conference championship last night after a big first quarter. The defending-champion Pistons proved too deep and too healthy, rallying from six points down in the final seven minutes for the win.
“I don’t think from a professional sense, from a basketball sense that I’ve ever been more disappointed,” said Miami coach Stan Van Gundy.
This had all the makings of a storybook ending. Toward the end of pregame warm-ups, Wade, who missed Game 6 with the rib injury, sauntered onto the court to a huge Miami roar, resembling Willis Reed 35 years ago in the Finals. But the Pistons don’t do storybooks.
Wade admitted he took a painkilling injection before the game, but not the strongest dose; the Heat medical staff feared he could tear a muscle without feeling it.
“Anybody in my position would have done the same thing and tried to gut it out,” said Wade, who took several falls and winced much of the night.
“I was just feeling restricted to my right side when I couldn’t move as much,” Wade added. “Couldn’t battle. This is Game 7. You want to be at your best and give hits and I couldn’t do that. Maybe that was the pained look on my face. I couldn’t give an all-out effort.”
Said Shaq: “Maybe they had more experience than us. We’re not going to make excuses.”
Rasheed Wallace, one of those experienced Pistons, made two free throws with 1:26 left to give Detroit a 80-79 lead, then tipped in a basket for an 82-79 bulge with 54.7 seconds remaining.
Wade drove but was tangled up for a jump ball, the Pistons winning the tip. Damon Jones missed 1 of 2 free throws with 17.3 seconds left to cap his miserable night (one point in 32 minutes).
Chauncey Billups, the Finals MVP last June, still one of the most underrated players in the league, was big-time again. He hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 5:18 left, then made a pair of game-sealing free throws with 15 seconds left to put the Pistons four.
“I love being in these situations where I have a chance to ice it,” Billups said.
At the start, Wade was tentative, rusty, not in control of his movements. He was 2 of 8 for eight points in the opening half. But Wade’s third quarter was remarkable. None of the early tentativeness was apparent as he drove the hoop and made all the twisting, turning, vintage running drives no one thought he could make in his condition.
“We needed it in the third, I felt it slipping away so I thought I’d pick it up,” said Wade. “My teammates knew I only had a certain amount of energy to put out for it.”
Wade made his first five shots of the third, finishing 5-for-6 in the period. At one point, he scored 16 of 27 Miami points.
With 4:30 left in the fourth, he took another spill on a wild driving miss, crashing hard to the court, wincing worse than all game.
