Here is my two cents about the game and series:

1) Whatever one may say about Larry Brown, he was able to get his players to play his system and to excute it well, especially in important games. Flip is not in the same league in that respect. You might not like LB's substitutions, his two-foul rule, his offensive sets, and so forth, but he is far superior to Flip in getting his players to do what he wants them to do.

2) Larry also understood that defense wins championships. Under Flip, this team lost its single-minded commitment to defense. Offensively, we were better under Flip during the regular season than we had been under Larry. But at this stage in the playoffs, the defensive intensity of a well-coached team like Miami is neutralizing much of that regular season offensive efficiency.

3) Hubie Brown (the TV commentator) has said repeatedly that it is our offense that is failing us in this series, as we are only averaging in the low to mid-80's in the last two rounds. I think his analysis is wrong. It would be interesting to compare our offensive production in this series with our production in the 2003 and 2004 playoff runs. I suspect that our point production in the last two playoff rounds this year would compare favorably with those figures. It is our defense that is off.

4) I thought the turning point in this game was when Billups got called for his fourth foul while Wade was bottled up on the sidelines with 1.5 seconds on the shot clock for Miami. Dumb foul. Billups was taken out and that really deflated us offensively.

5) Who was with Shaq when he made that end to end layup? Whoever it was got in front of Shaq just before he shot. But instead of colliding with Shaq and commiting a foul that almost surely would have prevented the basket, the player just ducked out of the way and let Shaq score the easy layup. I know that colliding with Shaq when he is moving full speed would be extremely punishing, but somehow I think a Piston in that situation last year would have made that defensive sacrifice.