A combination of good fortune and persistence on causing Wade to commit 5 fouls in the second half. That was huge down the stretch as he could not be very aggresive eg: guarding Billups when it counted, etc.
Great entertainment, the highlight of the game for me - if not Ben's block on one end (was it on Walker's shot?) leading to Prince turning Dwayne Wade into his little girlfriend on the behind-the-back dribble and jam - must have been Rip's penetration move to assist to Dice's slam over Mourning a bit later.

Ben played solid against Shaq. 14 boards 2 steals and 2 blocks. Especially that block in the 4th that led to a Prince dunk at the other end.

Plus he only had 2 fouls! I think thats his most impressive stat of the night playing against Shaq "Man Boobs" O'Neal.

He has a legit reason to be pissed they dont go down inside enough to him late but they did try and Ben Wallace denied him both times once with a block and a 2nd time with a poke/steal for Chauncey.
Great game for the guys to win I agree we should have tried to go after Wade more. I heard Marv Albert say Riley would probably like to put wade on Billups but he has 5 fouls. The stretch where rip had him all frustrated we might have gotten 1 more whistle but oh well. Wade has gotten frustrated against us before and imo we just get in his head, if and when he does not pick up those silly pissed off fouls he hurts us.

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" Either you play with a sense of urgency, or you will be leaving. It's that simple." Joe Dumars
Ok Joe it's time to prove it!!!!!!

We shot too many threes. Absolutely. One too many. One too many for Miami. Man oh man was that a killer 3 by Sheed to put the game away. Better yet, it was off a drive and dish from Billups, in a game where they keep telling us Billups is being talked about for the MVP. This game certainly is going to give him some votes. CB drove inside at the end, made free throws. Hit a shot or two.

Rip scored plenty. Quietly. But he got 25 points. Going inside a lot, and hitting from the outside. And Rip guarded Wade more than anyone else did. Thats a lot of work. Wade was hitting everything toward the end, no matter how well guarded. But he got to thinking he was superman at the very end and threw up a pretty wild shot defended very well by Tay. Got to know your limits pal.

Sheed had 4 triples. Guarded Shaq some. Pretty effectively really. Another hero was Prince. Hard to see that, but the guy was giving them problems posting up. And Tay let loose quite a few outside shots, several that went in. His defense on Wade for the most part was quite ineffective, but man did he make Wade work for some of those shots.

We got to see Delfino guard Wade some. He did better than some would expect. Miami started coming back from that 9 point lead we had while Delfino was guarding Wade, so you can't say it was that effective. But I'd say he did every bit as good a job as Evans did.

Ben Wallace certainly did not do so great a job of guarding Shaq, but he stayed out of foul trouble and continued to do his job. Altogether, when you consider the misses Shaq did have and all the times Shaq passed the ball away, you can't complain to much about how Ben did. No foul trouble, no need for Davis or Darko.

Arroyo played a ton in the first half. Did fine too. He had one marvelous pass up to Rip for a score. That pass was just shy of full court length, hitting Rip perfectly right at the basket almost. And the pass had to perfect or it would have been picked off. It takes both guts and skill to throw such a pass. Good job Arroyo. And Arroyo's defense on Payton was just fine. Arroyo generally took the legs out from the taller player. You knew Arroyo would see no time in the 2nd half. CB was well rested going into the 2nd half, and this is a nationally televised game with lots of nice long timeouts.

First time all year no Evans in the 2nd half of a game. Delfino was in instead, and we scored every single time down the court for quite a while after he entered the game. Except for a lucky 3 Walker got off glass, we scored 13 unanswered after Delfino came into the game. I like that a lot. He took turns resting Rip and Tay, and did a fine job doing so. (How much of that comeback was Wade just getting hot vs. anything bad Delfino did, I can't say. I really did not catch anything Delfino did wrong though.)

Evans had a good offensive rebound for us. He could not guard Wade. Hey, Wade is tough to guard, but if Evans can't guard Wade at all, then why is he in the game?

Dyess hit about one shot from the outside. Did not take many shots at all. He had that one dunk off a set play out of a time out. He gave our bigs plenty of rest. Ben for instance sat out at least 8 minutes of the 2nd. Dyess was in early and late in both halves, which meant Ben and Sheed could spend more energy where needed, on Shaq.

Shaq id not look all that sharp, but then again, will he get any better. He is already 10 games from that injury. By the end of the season, he will be either worn out or sporting another injury. Maybe. We don't know. Three more games to play these guys yet before the playoffs.

Miami did not go to Shaq in the 4th quarter. Wade, Wade, Wade instead. And a little Williams too. Williams scored a lot for them. Can't say much bad about his game really. Wade was hitting shot after shot, so if Shaq complains about too few touches, thats just sour grapes. The fact is, they could not stop us on the other end, despite all that scoring they did down the stretch. About the most significant fact was that Wade picked up a pair of stupid offensive fouls for hooking that kept him from guarding Billups down the stretch. Such things are going to have to keep happening if we are going to keep beating Miami. Riley is a darn good coach and I bet he cleans that up.

Oh. The joke. Payton guarding Billups? Nuff said. Billups was the hero down the stretch while Payton was a complete non-factor for his team in the game.

As I have said, this board or another, every three we took last game was good to have taken. See why? Practice makes perfect. They had to be sharp for this game. Going inside on Shaq and Mourning does not pay off that greatly.

Delfino hit one outside shot, missed two others. A 3 he took just rimmed out. He made 1 of 2 at the line, and scored a fast break layup. And he was our only sub besides Dyess in that 2nd half. I'd say coach is trusting the right guy.

Great win by the Stones. Billups came out big and took over down the stretch. I was expecting to see some Arroyo at the beginning of the 4th Q, but seems like Flip though Cb had enough rest on the 2nd Q. Delfino played better than Evans tonight and he will earn more minutes as the season progresses.

Nice recap. Hit the highlites, summed things up. Good job!

That would have been, combined in the last two games, a 21-0 run when Delfino enters a game. We did an 8-0 run last game when Delfino entered. This was a 13-3 run.

After watching this game, I say give Acker a shot at the backup shooting guard minutes over Evans. I originally thought Acker was a solid defender, but one who could not stop dribble penetration. But after seeing how bad Evans is at it, I say go back to Acker.

Acker can hit threes. Throw assists. Defend outside shots very well. He can drive and score. Very athletic. Good rebounder. Not as strong nor as athletic as Evans, but lighter and quicker.

Didn't one of them look like Wade was trying to fake getting fouled, but Hamilton faked back and Wade ended up getting called for a foul?

Crime does not pay!

Look at the box score.

We won this game at the line and the arc. The bench was barely a factor. 13 PTS, 4 REBS, 3 AST and 2 STLs.

Outshot AND outrebounded. 5 nights out of 7, that will lose you the game.

Nice to get the W, but this was far from a convincing win. 5 points and down to the wire against a team that is not as good as the Spurs.

Ben has got to get the ball for more than 3 shots (one of which was a 3 seconds on the shot clock bailout). We put zero pressure on Shaq until late in the game.

Flip's use of the bench is atrocious. Maybe even worse than LB.

Miami did well. Almost good enough to steal the game in Detroit.

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Thank you for another great season!

YEah! Good win today.

I was a little concerned about the defense inside early as JWill went in for layup after layup but we came out with the win.

I was a little concerned that we were that close after the 1st quarter with Dwade not even heating up yet but we came out with the win.

I was a little concerned we were shooting the three too much but we came out with the win.

I was a bit concerned with how Evans would do but Delfino came in and rescued him and we came out with the win.

I really think we shot it well tonight but we should penetrate more just like what Chauncey was doing in the fourth. Sheed is hanging around the three point arc way more this year. Good thing he is making them.

Great job by Delfino today. If I'm Flip I'm getting him off the bench first. It looks like he has better game than Evans.

Dice looked good out there again.

Arroyo was great as well with that on-the-money, touchdown pass to Rip in the 2nd.

Ben was huge against Shaq and we can't have enough of that block on Shaq in the fourth.

It was close. DWade was ridiculous in the fourth. Downright scary. But thankfully we have a team that stares them down, and gets business done.

GO DETROIT!