GAME 7: Pistons 88 – Heat 82
MIAMI – Dwyane Wade gave all his strained rib muscle would allow, played a third quarter to remember. He could not get the Heat a victory, though.
The Pistons, 88-82 winners last night in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, get San Antonio on Thursday in the NBA Finals, while the Heat get more playoff heartbreak despite a heroic showing by Wade, who extended his wrecked body beyond the limits in scoring 20 points – but none in the fourth quarter.
Shaquille O’Neal (27 points, nine rebounds) didn’t do enough after his big first quarter as the defending-champion Pistons proved too deep and too healthy, rallying from six points down in the final seven minutes for the win at American Airlines Arena.
Rasheed Wallace, coming up with a huge 20 points, made two free throws to give Detroit a 80-79 lead, then tipped in a basket for an 82-79 bulge with 54.7 seconds left.
Wade drove but tangled up for a jump ball, the Pistons winning the tip. Damon Jones missed 1 of 2 free throws with 17.3 seconds left, sealing the Heat’s fate.
Richard Hamilton led Detroit with 22 points.
Toward the end of pregame warm-ups, Wade sauntered onto the court to a huge Miami roar, resembling Willis Reed 35 years ago in the Finals.
But at the start, Wade was tentative, rusty, not in control of his movements. He hit 2 of 8 for eight points in the half.
The Heat refused to give Wade a pain-killing needle, the staff afraid his lack of feeling would cause him to tear the muscle. But he tore out the heart of the proud Pistons.
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 everyone didn’t think Wade could make in his condition.
The Miami trainers talked for days about Wade feeling a knife in his ribs when he breathed. But in the third, he took a knife to Detroit’s defending-champion aura.
Wade made his first five shots of the third, finishing 5 of 6. At one point, he scored 16 of 27 Miami points. He had 20 points after three quarters, making 7 of 14 shots.
And when Rasheed Wallace picked up his fourth foul with 1:48 left and headed to the bench, the arena was in full throat.
Miami coach Stan Van Gundy issued a rebounding challenge to Shaq before the game. In the final minute of the third, Shaq cleaned up and offensive board laid it in for a 66-64 Heat lead after three quarters.
With Shaq getting it going inside early in the fourth, Miami went up 74-68 with 7:02 left. The Pistons rolled back; Billups drained a clutch 3-pointer to tie it at 74 with 4:55 left
With 4:30 left in the fourth, he took another spill on a wild driving miss, crashing hard to the court, wincing worse than he had all game.
On his first touch, Wade pounded into Shaq who threw it back out to Wade. Instead of attacking the hole as he would’ve done a week ago, Wade stuffed it back inside to Shaq, who was called for a 3-second violation.
Wade missed his first three attempts. On his first, from the left corner, Wade missed badly and fell off balance, crashing to the floor. His next attempt was a runner in the lane. Airball.
Wade finally hit his first shot 7:30 into the contest, sinking a pull-up just inside the 3-point line. And he started to look limber when he posted up Hamilton and made a turning flip shot – the sign of better things to come.
The Heat still controlled the first quarter. Shaq dominated inside, finishing with 10 points – mostly dunks – to make up for Wade’s early ineffectiveness and the Pistons played anxious and nervous in the quarter, their big-game experience failing to show.
