HEAT 95 PISTONS 78
Heat finishes job against Pistons
O’Neal, Wade help Miami end Detroit’s reign in the East
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Tim Reynolds
ASSOCIATED PRESS
<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle>
</IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>WILFREDO LEE ASSOCIATED PRESS </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Miami’s Dwyane Wade, right, gets tangled up with Detroit’s Antonio McDyess in the first quarter. </TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>
</IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>LYNNE SLADKY </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace puts the clamps on Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal during the third quarter. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
MIAMI — A year ago, the Miami Heat simply wasn’t good enough. Shaquille O’Neal knew it. Dwyane Wade knew it.
So Pat Riley fixed it.
And now, the Heat is headed to the NBA Finals for the first time.
O’Neal had 28 points and 16 rebounds and Wade, who spent part of his day in a hospital battling dehydration and flu-like symptoms, added 14 points as the Heat ended the Detroit Pistons’ two-year reign as Eastern Conference champions with an 95-78 win last night.
"Our guys came tonight and put the hammer down," said Riley, the Heat’s president and coach.
His superstars didn’t have to do it alone. Jason Williams, one of Riley’s prized off-season additions, came up huge with Wade lagging in Game 6, scoring 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the field.
The Heat will play either Dallas or Phoenix in the Finals, which start Thursday.
"We know right now, we still have a job ahead of us," said Heat forward James Posey, another newcomer — like Gary Payton and Antoine Walker, two title-starved veterans — brought in last summer by Riley in a quest to surround his big guns with more firepower.
"We’re not going to get too high right now. We’re not going to get too low. Four more wins — that’s the most important thing."
Richard Hamilton had 33 points for Detroit, which finished the regular season with an NBA-best 64-18 record and came in confident after ending Miami’s season here a year ago in Game 7, in part because Wade and O’Neal were battling injury.
Wade clearly wasn’t at his best last night. But O’Neal was. He was 12 of 14 from the field, making sure this chance wouldn’t slip away.
"Miami played great," Hamilton said. "They deserved it."
The Pistons weren’t shy about showing their respect to the new champions of the East.
"I don’t want to make excuses," guard Chauncey Billups said. "They flat-out beat us."
Tayshaun Prince said, "Miami was definitely the better team."
Detroit shot just 33 percent from the field, with Billups going 3 of 14 and Rasheed Wallace 4 of 12. The Pistons were outrebounded 48-39 and let the Heat shoot 56 percent from the floor, despite insisting that defense would be their top priority for Game 6.
"We didn’t play how we play," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said.
Wade was 1 of 6 with four points in the first half. It didn’t matter. O’Neal and Williams more than carried the early scoring load, helping Miami take a 47-36 halftime lead.
"Jason Williams," Wade said, "did an unbelievable job tonight."
O’Neal was 9 of 11 from the field for 19 points in the first half. And Williams, who was 13 of 30 from the floor in the first five games, was 5 of 5 in the half, the last of those a pull-up jumper with 4:14 left in the first half, giving Miami a 38-27 lead.
Detroit closed to 40-33 on two free throws by Hamilton with 2:52 left, but O’Neal scored six straight Miami points in an 8-3 run by the Heat.
The Pistons closed to 10 midway through the third quarter before Wade finally started to roll. He had 10 points in the quarter, hitting his last four shots — including a jumper with a second left for a 72-53 lead.
"I just wanted to help my teammates," Wade said. "And God gave me the strength." Hamilton and the Pistons made one final run; his jumper with 6:24 left pulled Detroit to 80-67. He had a steal 17 seconds later, but O’Neal blocked his layup and then dunked at the other end.