The Detroit Pistons say the pressure is on the Miami Heat now, because if the Heat doesn’t win Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals at home Friday, it will face a deciding game Sunday in Detroit (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
“Everyone knows any team in the league likes to play from in front,” Ben Wallace said Wednesday after his dramatic block on Shaquille O’Neal helped ignite an unusually phlegmatic Pistons defense.
The Heat says the pressure is on the Pistons because the Heat is ahead 3-2 with a chance to close out the series at home.
“It’s a golden opportunity to win Game 6 at home,” Dwyane Wade said. “They’re the defending conference champions. There’s no pressure on us.”
Those conflicting views put considerable pressure on the media to figure out just whom the pressure is on.
“The pressure is on them and us,” Tayshaun Prince finally decided.
Now it’s getting confusing, and what may be even more unclear is what all this will mean.
We usually look to the champions, in the conferences as well, to provide a blueprint for success.
The Heat is trying to get to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. The Pistons can claim to be a dynasty of sorts with a third straight Finals appearance and, perhaps, a second title in three seasons.
So this series is something of a referendum on the best path to NBA success, because it’s a meeting of two diverging philosophies.
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The Heat claims the classic two-stars formula that has been an NBA trademark for decades: Bird and McHale, Magic and Kareem, Jordan and Pippen, Shaq and Kobe and now Shaq and Wade.
Miami’s duo is combining for 50 points per game in a series in which neither team is averaging 90. In fact, scoring 90 just about assures a win.
The Pistons won both times they scored in the low 90s and lost the three times they didn’t. Miami has scored 89, 91 and 98 in its three wins and 78 and 88 in its losses.
And in the fourth quarter of Game 5 Wednesday, when the Pistons played the kind of defense they’ve been famous for, only O’Neal and Wade scored for the Heat.
That remains Miami’s vulnerability. Heat coach Pat Riley rebuilt last year’s conference finalist with the idea of adding more offense after O’Neal and Wade had injuries in the series against Detroit. But when the Bulls challenged Miami in the first round, they concentrated on taking out the supporting cast, and only a big effort from O’Neal in Game 6 saved the Heat.
The Pistons finally have realized the Heat backups will back up if challenged, especially on the road. Also, Miami was an anemic 6-for-20 from the foul line in Game 5.
“It will [now] come down to effort plays, who’s making free throws, who’s rebounding the ball and not making turnovers,” Riley said. “That has been my experience.”
Riley’s experience also is never having a playoff team lose after being ahead 3-1. But the Pistons are 11-2 in closeout playoff games with this group and 8-1 since 2004.
If Miami can exert its will, will that mean the two-star formula is back in vogue?
Detroit had been the model in recent years, a team without a superstar that was all effort and hard work, which is how you have to approach it when you don’t have a transcendent star.
The Bulls have talked about going that way and are considering it now. Do you go for a star in trade or use your draft picks and free agency to add rotation players for your roster and mimic the Detroit model? Or do you have to find a star because of the way the game is changing and the success an individual like Wade can have under rules changes to benefit scorers?
Since the Pistons won the championship in 2004, they’ve been moaning that the NBA has legislated against teams that play good, hard defense and don’t rely on individual stars.
“Rule changes were basically made to create more offense, and sometimes when you’re not allowed to touch people, it gives more opportunities for your star-type players,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. “I don’t think anyone envisioned San Antonio would get into a series and give up over 100 points as they did against Sacramento and against Dallas. The way the rules are, where you can’t touch people, sometimes it becomes difficult to contain guys who can put it on the floor and create.”
Wade is shooting 60 percent from the floor against the Pistons.
Detroit faces another challenge: From 2001 through 2005, four teams with the league’s best overall record lost in the conference finals: San Antonio in 2001 with 58 wins, Sacramento in 2002 with 61 wins, Indiana in 2004 with 61 wins and Phoenix in 2005 with 62 wins. The only recent No. 1 seed to win a title was San Antonio in 2003, when it finished tied with Dallas for the league’s best record. Detroit’s 64-18 mark was this season’s best by one game over the Spurs, whom the Mavericks eliminated in the second round.
“I told the guys we’ve been in a funk the last two weeks,” Saunders said. “It’s time to get out of it and start playing.”
It remains unclear how much pressure that adds and on whom.
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