Miami.. you let this one get away... with 3 minutes left in the game, shaq scored 5 straight points, the heat looked primed to take control, miami had the ball and the 2 point lead... shaq barks something to damon jones as they were comming down court(probably, get me the friggin ball). Damon comes down, feeds shaq, shaq kicks it out to damon, instead of re-feeding the post jones gets antsy drives in attempts a shot, changes his mind and tries to pass and then turned it over, the pistons score, next time down, wade comes right down and hoist a 20 ft jumper... game over, season over... Again, when will people learn, you run the offense through the diesel. I fault vangundy for not calling a timeout to stress that point, I fault him for not getting eddie Jones more touches and I fault him also for not putting in mourning to defend rasheed... Damon Jones also played out of sorts, it just goes to show, that some guys are not big time players, at least not yet, we know shaq is, but the verdict is still out on wade and the rest of the miami crew.. This game hurt, I wanted to see the heat play the spurs... I hate detroit.... Oh well, those 3 minutes determined this season for miami, they failed and now they go home... Learing how to be a winner is tough in this league... very tough.....

I'm a bit surprised by how close this series was considering Shaq was at about 50% and Wade was hurt toward the end of the series. If those two had been reasonably healthy, the Heat might have won in five games.

Today is a great day for me...living in Miami and being a huge Knicks fan I don't think any of you understand the absoulte hate I have for the Miami Heat. Me and a couple of my buddies live and die with the Knicks and we all share the same distaste for the Heat. So when that game ended I got flashbacks of 99, 00, and 01 when the Knicks beat them in Miami in the final games of the series. It's like my championship to know that the Heat lost. It's just a great day.

Posted by tkf:

Miami.. you let this one get away... with 3 minutes left in the game, shaq scored 5 straight points, the heat looked primed to take control, miami had the ball and the 2 point lead... shaq barks something to damon jones as they were comming down court(probably, get me the friggin ball). Damon comes down, feeds shaq, shaq kicks it out to damon, instead of re-feeding the post jones gets antsy drives in attempts a shot, changes his mind and tries to pass and then turned it over, the pistons score, next time down, wade comes right down and hoist a 20 ft jumper... game over, season over... Again, when will people learn, you run the offense through the diesel. I fault vangundy for not calling a timeout to stress that point, I fault him for not getting eddie Jones more touches and I fault him also for not putting in mourning to defend rasheed... Damon Jones also played out of sorts, it just goes to show, that some guys are not big time players, at least not yet, we know shaq is, but the verdict is still out on wade and the rest of the miami crew.. This game hurt, I wanted to see the heat play the spurs... I hate detroit.... Oh well, those 3 minutes determined this season for miami, they failed and now they go home... Learing how to be a winner is tough in this league... very tough.....

Great post! You're right on with Damon Jones, I was screaming for Stan to get Dooling back in the game. He makes stupid mistakes but he's fast and has balls (Damon was so slow and disappeared completely in that game). Wade made some horrible decisions in the final 2-3 minutes. Damn I really wanted Miami to win!

Great game by Detroit, everyone played their part in that win, that's team basketball. SA's gonna win though, in 6.

i don't know, my impression is that shaq is not a guy you give the ball to in order to get the crucial basket down the stretch. he did run off a few baskets, he also committed an offensive foul and a travel late in the fourth, too, and you can't count on him converting from the foul line. i would say the heat should have fed him the ball more whenever he was in earlier, but with the lakers it was always kobe with the ball late in the game, usually with success, and now it's got to be wade to get hte crucial score in the last minute. shaq keeps you in the game and gets you a cushion, but you need the star guard to convert late.

the pistons depth is pretty amazing. their whole starting five was contributing, and mcdyess was big on O and hunter on D. the starting five was championship seasoned and it showed. the rest of the heat looked lost without wade and when shaq was not enough involved, dangerous but not going to make the big play.

[Edited by - Masterplan on 06/07/2005 02:03:51]

Posted by Masterplan:

i don't know, my impression is that shaq is not a guy you give the ball to in order to get the crucial basket down the stretch. he did run off a few baskets, he also committed an offensive foul and a travel late in the fourth, too, and you can't count on him converting from the foul line. i would say the heat should have fed him the ball more whenever he was in earlier, but with the lakers it was always kobe with the ball late in the game, usually with success, and now it's got to be wade to get hte crucial score in the last minute. shaq keeps you in the game and gets you a cushion, but you need the star guard to convert late.

the pistons depth is pretty amazing. their whole starting five was contributing, and mcdyess was big on O and hunter on D. the starting five was championship seasoned and it showed. the rest of the heat looked lost without wade and when shaq was not enough involved, dangerous but not going to make the big play.

[Edited by - Masterplan on 06/07/2005 02:03:51]

Good post! Shaq aslo got away with a double dribble. Ref missed that one.

I thought Detroit won the game. Not Miami losing it. Detroit is the champs and certain confidence level does matter. Miami outside of shaq is not ready for prime time.

In a championship run, injury and luck matter. Shaq looks good, but the injury to wade was unfortunate and might have made a difference.

Miami had to go with what works down the stretch and actually I thought played a hell of a game given Wades injury.

Detroits ball movement was excellent and the guard play outstanding!