Ben Wallace gets his hand in the face of half of Miami's basketball team: Shaq
The way I see it, this Heat-Pistons thing is much ado about nothing. And I'm not talking regular season; you can mark that down for the playoffs as well.
This is all moot, because unless the Heat can figure out how to beat the Pistons playing two against five, then there's nothing for us Detroiters to worry about, truthfully.
Last night the Heat played one-and-a-half against five and lost, 82-73. Shaquille O'Neal had 27 points, but Dwyane "Pat Riley says compare him to Michael Jordan" Wade only had 13, a season low for him.
Antoine Walker had 15 points, and no other Heat player scored more than six. Jason Williams (how many NBA players are or were named that, anyway?) -- who is supposed to be some sort of "x" factor, had five points in 31 minutes. And Gary Payton? Isn't there still a missing persons report out on him from the 2004 NBA Finals?
The Heat have been as hot as their name, going 15-3 since the All-Star break. But a lot of those wins have come against chump opponents -- the kind that are giving the Pistons fits lately, but only because Flip Saunders' crew is fighting boredom.
But the gaudy 15-3 run aside, the Heat are still a two-man team: Shaq and Wade. Gone is the one man who could cause me to reach for another scotch and soda: Eddie Jones. If anyone could be that "x" factor, it was Jones, in my book. And he was, in Game 3 of the Eastern Finals last May. Jones took over midway through the fourth quarter, and the Pistons were cooked. But Eddie Jones is gone now, and I don't see anyone on the Miami roster who strikes fear into me like Jones could.
Walker is okay, no question about that. But the Pistons can handle him, I believe. Williams is flashy, but how playoff-capable is he? There's a lot of scuttlebutt about Alonzo Mourning, who can block shots and intimidate, but don't the Pistons have the best backcourt in the business? And aren't most of their makes from 15-feet and beyond? Can 'Zo intimidate that? I doubt it.
The Pistons had some trouble with the Heat last night because they couldn't shoot straight. They had some good looks but the ball wasn't falling. Sheed happens, you know. But the Pistons don't normally shoot that poorly. If they had even been at 40 percent last night instead of 35, the game wouldn't have been very close, for the Pistons were doing a number on Mr. Wade (3-for-15 from the field).
The Heat were tired, no question, playing their fourth game in five nights. And the NBA playoff schedule, with its fetish for days off between games -- even in the same city -- won't provide such fatigue-inducing stretches. But rested or not, weary or not, the Heat are still, in my mind, a two-man gang.
Oh, that's not to say that the Pistons will sweep them if they meet in the Conference Finals. You always have to allow for a role player to have the game of his life (a la Brian Scalabrine), or for Shaq or Wade to dominate and lead their team to victory. That might even happen twice in a seven-game series.
But the Pistons have too many weapons, are too tight-knit and confident in each other, to let the Shaq & Wade Heat beat them four times.
Wake me when it's Dallas or San Antonio you want to talk about.
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