Pistons ice Heat, return to Finals
By Roscoe Nance, USA TODAY
MIAMI — The Detroit Pistons, with key contributions from a variety of players, showed their championship mettle Monday en route to an 88-82 victory against the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
By Robin Buckson, The Detroit News
Four Pistons starters scored in double figures as the defending NBA champions overcame a six-point deficit in the final six minutes.
"We never panicked," Detroit coach Larry Brown said. "We had so many guys step up."
The Pistons will face the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals, which begin Thursday night in San Antonio. The teams split their two regular-season contests, each winning at home.
"I'm thrilled. It's like a dream come true," Richard Hamilton said of returning to the Finals.
"We have great respect for them," Brown said. "They have won two championships (1999 and 2003), and not many people talk about it. We're the defending champs, and not very many people talk about that."
Hamilton led the Pistons with 22 points. Rasheed Wallace had 20 points and Tayshaun Prince finished with 13 points. But point guard Chauncey Billups, the MVP of last year's Finals, was the big gun in the fourth quarter, scoring seven of his 18 points.
Billups was 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the quarter. He lived up to his nickname, Mr. Big Shot, by making a three-pointer with 4:58 left that tied the score at 74.
"We just have so much confidence in one another," Billups said. "I know if I'm not hitting, somebody else will be. It doesn't matter what time of the game it is. Whoever's got an open look, we feel like they're going to make it."
The Pistons' win offset a valiant performance by Dwyane Wade, Miami's second-year All-Star guard who had 20 points despite playing with a strained rib muscle that he suffered in Game 5 Thursday. Wade, who took an injection before Game 7 to kill the pain, scored 12 points in the third quarter as the Heat erased a five-point halftime deficit and led 66-64 going into the fourth quarter.
"Anybody would have done it," Wade said about taking the injection. "We were down in the third, and I felt it slipping away, so I thought I put it in my hands a little bit and do what I can.
"My teammates knew I only had a certain amount of energy to put out."
But he and his Heat teammates seemed to run out of energy in the last two minutes.
"We had four pretty tough possessions down the stretch, and in a game that close, you've got to execute down the stretch and we didn't," Miami coach Stan Van Gundy said. "That's why we are where we are now."
The Pistons, however, kept their poise.
"A lot of guys stepped up tonight," Brown said of Detroit. "That's a total team win. We beat a great team. I know Dwyane was less than 100%, but he was phenomenal.
"We just beat a great team. In order to do that, you have to make plays and have guys step up. I thought we played kind of perfect down the stretch like we did in Game 1."
With the victory, the Pistons defeated a Shaquille O'Neal-led team in the postseason for the second consecutive year. Detroit defeated O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals last year.
When O'Neal was traded to the Heat, he promised he would deliver the first title in the 17-year history of the franchise. He won three championship rings with the Lakers.
"I'm a little bit hurt for the guys in the locker room and the city of Miami," said O'Neal, who led Miami with 27 points. "Next year we have to start from square one, build and build and try to get it done."
"I'm not disappointed in our players, I'm just extremely disappointed in the result," Van Gundy said. "We worked all year to get this seventh game at home. I thought we were the most professional team in the East; I feel for our players and feel for our management."
Detroit won for the 10th straight time when needing one victory to clinch a series, the second longest such streak behind the Lakers' record 12-game run that ended in 2004. The Pistons also became the first team to win an Eastern Conference finals Game 7 on the road in 23 years.
"That's what we do!" Hamilton yelled in a jubilant locker room, repeating the phrase over and over, even after he headed to the showers.
Detroit's victory extended Brown's coaching career for at least four more games, pitting him against his good friend, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, and another dominant big man, Tim Duncan, in the finals.
Brown was elated as the final seconds ticked down, racing up the sideline to embrace Rasheed Wallace near midcourt and then sprinting back to his bench to whoop it up a little more.
The sentimental pangs that Brown was experiencing before Game 6 were diminished this time.
"Not so much as the last game," Brown told the Associated Press. "I was home, my family was around. Now, I'm just excited about the opportunity, because these don't come around very much."
Brown will visit the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., soon after Detroit's season ends to address a medical problem that developed after complications from hip surgery. If surgeons are not able to correct it, Brown plans to retire from coaching. Speculation has been rampant that if he leaves Detroit, Brown may join the Cleveland Cavaliers' front office.
Notes: Damon Jones sprained his left ankle in the first quarter but returned before halftime. He scored only one point. ... This was the 91st Game 7 in NBA history. The home team has a 74-17 record. ... The Pistons are 4-4 in Game 7s, while Miami is 2-2.
Robbie