[DetroitPistons.com]

DAVE WIEME: Noisily into the night
We go all the way down to the floor level and Matt wheels the box out of the elevator. I know it is the Eastern Conference trophy in the box and the NBA has sent it along, just in case it should be awarded tonight. It was 85 degrees outside and about 80 degrees inside, but I suddenly had a chill and broke out into a cold sweat. There was a real possibility that we were going home tonight…that we were done for the season…that tomorrow morning, the summer starts.

[Detroit Free Press]

DREW SHARP: Pistons lore should deep-six the Heat
MIAMI - They're just a little antsy down here and it has nothing to do with the official start of hurricane season. There's another storm brewing that has south Florida looking for a little reassurance.

It's rated a Category Six, as in Game Six.

The Pistons don't lose them.

Simply forcing Game 7 will mean redemption
If the Pistons win tonight in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against a Miami team that has dominated them for most of this series, if they force a winner-take-all Game 7 at The Palace on Sunday, then a lot of perceptions from the past two weeks become obsolete.

This team's legacy is not yet written. Tonight will go a long way in determining just what kind of tone its story deserves.

Pistons fans going full throttle
Tonight in Miami, Detroit's home team won't hear the explosive joy of The Palace crowd, but it will receive showers of prayers.

Invocations both serious and silly have emerged as one of dozens of personal rituals by passionate Pistons fans are evoking in the desperate hopes their beloved basketball team will not be playing its last game of the season tonight. Pistons fans want a win, and they're doing, wearing and saying anything they can to will their team to Game 7.

[Chicago Tribune]

SAM SMITH: Pistons' Prince has this view - Pressure is on them and us
The Detroit Pistons say the pressure is on the Miami Heat now, because if the Heat doesn't win Game 6 of the Western Conference finals at home Friday, it will face a deciding game Sunday in Detroit.

"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.

Pistons now shift heat to Miami
Meanwhile, the Western Conference rivals seem to be rooting for the Heat. Mostly because whomever wins the West gets home-court advantage for the Finals over Miami.

Also, though no one on either the Phoenix Suns or the Dallas Mavericks would say it, both teams believe they can run on Miami and are too quick for the Heat, leaving O'Neal no one to guard.

[L.A. Times]

Prince Carries A Heavy Load for the Pistons
He was a star at Kentucky, but many NBA scouts couldn't see past his slight build, his 'long arms that seem to sway like a wooden puppet's from his thin, high shoulders,' as Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom once noted.

Nearly two dozen teams put him through pre-draft workouts.

Prince arrived in Detroit after a particularly grueling session in Chicago, where the Bulls had him dunk medicine balls one after another until he could do it no more, according to Kander, the Pistons' strength and conditioning coach.

'He came in and he could hardly move,' Kander said, recalling Prince's aching back and burning hamstrings. 'The very first play, a guy nailed him in the back and he fell to the floor. So your first thought is typical: You look at him and you think, 'Oh, God, this guy's not going to be able to get up.' He went and dominated the workout, with his back sore, dragging a leg, all that.

'Forget all the physical testing that we do. Here's a guy that pushed himself through. He got nailed into the basket on one play, got right up, went out there again, was attacking, was aggressive.'

[Miami Herald]

The danger zone
''There is a danger here,'' Riley said. ``You're going against a team that has had a stronghold on this conference for the last three or four years. It's not going to be easy. When we went ahead 3-1, you get three bites of the apple, basically. Usually, on the first one, you try to gobble the whole thing, but we didn't. We get opportunity No. 2 at home.''

Nobody around the Heat wants Miami's fate to come down to opportunity No. 3.

Catchphrase now has urgency: It's the Heat's time
Heat seasons have ended in home playoff losses in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2005. That's a lot of heartache bunched together, a lot of listening to opposing players fill the silence of your emptying arena with their echoing cheers. Miami franchise history is potholed with almosts and if-onlys. The bounces and cursed luck against the nemesis Knicks. The near-deals (Juwan Howard, Tracy McGrady) that fell through. Zo's illness. Wade's injury in this round a year ago.

Tonight can make everything better.

Mavericks' owner wants the Heat
"Everyone in Dallas is rooting for the Heat for two reasons," Cuban, whose team is favored to beat Phoenix in the Western finals, relayed via e-mail. "We want to see Shaq in the Finals again, and it gives the Mavs home-court advantage."

Why does Cuban want to see Shaquille O'Neal in the Finals? "Great for TV ratings. We can play our Shaq Albert video and crack Shaq up during the games. Shaq and I can give hand signals and see if we get caught. Most importantly, if the Mavs make it past the Suns, it would be great basketball between two great teams."

_ Sightings: Kings forward Ron Artest wandering around crobar nightclub shirtless, women gravitating toward him .... Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups and Lindsey Hunter dining at separate tables at Prime 112. (Several Pistons rejected invitations to go clubbing on South Beach - unlike Vince Carter, who frolicked at B.E.D. past 3:30 a.m. the night before Miami eliminated the Nets.)

[South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Heat's angry, ready
Riley insisted during a Thursday teleconference, there also should be no emotional scars from Wednesday's competitive loss.

He said his players seemed to take home that message.

"I didn't sense in the locker room a real frustrated team," he said, having given his players Thursday off. "I sensed a team that was angry, because they know they did not play the game well."

DAVE HYDE: Gauging Heat's highs, lows
"You can be the first one," Riley told guard Dwyane Wade, meaning Wade would be the first player from the celebrated 2003 draft class to make the NBA Finals. [Wrong.]

"You're a long way from France," Riley told forward Udonis Haslem, who played in basketball's hinterlands three years ago.

"You've been there before," he told veteran Gary Payton, who advanced to the Finals twice.

He told Antoine Walker, "You can take the next step," and Alonzo Mourning, "You've fought for this."

All these words are just as relevant before tonight's Game 6, maybe more so, because the line to the entire team goes like so:

You can deliver the biggest win in Heat history -- or the worst loss.

White hot's not cool for all in Miami
There are a few fans who won't be "White Hot," despite the Heat's marketing campaign.

During the 30 minutes before each Heat playoff game, the arena camera operators zoom in on fans not dressed in white. Announcer Michael Baiamonte hollers out "Hey you! Put on that shirt!" to those who sit with their free white shirts draped over their shoulders.

"I call it coaxing," Baiamonte said.

The color campaign is the third in three years, following up on last year's "The Red Zone" and 2004's "Back in Black." The 20,000-plus arena seats are covered in white pillowcases to enhance the snowy look, and ushers give away white shirts at the first home game of each playoff series.

IRA WINDERMAN: Do ... or die?
The Heat can win in Detroit and has been competitive in every game at the Palace of Auburn Hills in this series.

That said, it would be foolish for the Heat to think just because it's home for Friday's Game 6 of these Eastern Conference finals that closing out this series will be easy.

[Palm Beach Post]

Pressure: Heat find the series turned around
Lose, and the Heat trudges back to Detroit tied at three games apiece to play a supremely confident Pistons team in Game 7 on Sunday. And according to the numbers, it would be an almost certain Miami loss. Home teams are 78-17 (.821 winning percentage) in NBA playoff Game 7s, and on top of that, Detroit had the league's best regular-season home record at 37-4.

So while Miami says tonight isn't a must-win game — after all, it can point to Detroit winning Game 7 of last year's conference finals on the Heat's home floor — percentages say otherwise.

GREG STODA: Riley pensive in role as Great Motivator
Riley, who has his own great and proud reputation as a coach and motivator, now finds himself searching for just the right voice with which to entice his team. His predicament is that a good portion of the Heat core features not just veterans, but veterans who are or were NBA stars — O'Neal, Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning — of considerable significance.

Mix in other veterans (Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, James Posey and a few others), and it can, with the exception of Mourning and his fierce allegiance to Riley, make for a bored audience.

Big-game success bolsters Detroit
KEY BISCAYNE — Flip Saunders isn't ready to burst just yet, and the Pistons coach hopes his team won't either.

Saunders described himself as "a standing piñata" on Thursday because of all the criticism he has taken as the Pistons trail the Heat 3-2 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.

The Pistons fought off one elimination game with Wednesday's 91-78 victory, and Saunders, in his first season coaching the reigning two-time Eastern Conference champions, hopes they can do it again with Game 6 tonight in Miami.

When asked if the piñata has broken, Saunders said, "They got a little bit of candy out of me, but I've got a lot left."

As for the team, Saunders said experience has eased any anxiety.

"I think if you didn't have a team that was in this situation as much as they've been, you'd maybe be somewhat concerned," Saunders said. "But this team has faced elimination many times and had success. They feel confident."

[Washington Times]

TOM KNOTT: Pistons headed for exit
If the Pistons go down tonight, it will be well-deserved.

That would prompt a goodbye, along with a good riddance.

No team should find a reward after throwing its beleaguered coach under the bus, especially the coach who succeeded the one who abandoned it for the 23-win dream job in Manhattan.

[This is one bitter dude, and he pours the Hatorade all over everybody. But some of his points are actually the same ones we've been making in the forums.]