Given To Fly: Look for Pistons to play music of champions
By Craig Pearson

TERRE HAUTE — I’ve been through Detroit before, but never had I entered the Palace of Auburn Hills until recently.

It’s not the Boston Garden, but there is some basketball tradition there.

When I was about eight years old, one of my first NBA memories was the Pistons taking down Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and the L.A. Lakers in the NBA Finals.




Despite 3-2 lead, pressure is on Heat
Miami doesn't want to face prospect of returning to Detroit for Game 7
By Mike Celizic

Miami lost Game 5, coach but Pat Riley’s warriors are still up 3-2 on the Detroit Pistons with Game 6 on their home floor, where they are expected to win. And because of that, the heat’s now on the Heat.

Pressure is a funny thing, often weighing more heavily on those on whom it should weigh the least. Logic says that when the Heat took a 3-1 lead over the favored Pistons, all of the pressure moved to Detroit’s side of the ledger. After all, when teams led by a future Hall of Famer and a rising superstar get such a lead, they almost never lose a series.





Billups has turned into a big shot
by Jackie MacMullan

Pitino's brief reign as king of the Celtics was a disaster, in part, because he was too impatient to allow his young players to develop, but really, now, how many of us thought Chauncey Billups would be a legitimate league MVP candidate someday?

Not me. As much as I loved the kid's energy and confidence during his brief tenure in Boston, I understood Pitino's concerns that he was a ``tweener" who might not ever develop the necessary skills to become a successful point guard, and wondered aloud if he would ever hone the kind of perimeter game that would be crucial to his success.





After block, Ben rejects Shaq notion
by MITCH LAWRENCE

MIAMI - On your typical NBA day, Shaquille O'Neal has almost no use for Ben Wallace. In O'Neal's mind, Wallace is among the legion of annoying defenders who resort to flopping to get calls and whining to the refs when they can't contend with the Diesel's physical play.

So it came as no surprise that after Miami had its lead cut to 3-2 in the Eastern Conference finals, Shaq gave Wallace no credit for coming up with one of the great all-time blocks against O'Neal, a play that the Pistons hope will continue to resonate here tonight in Game 6.

Feeling it?
By DANA GAURUDER
Of The Oakland Press

For the first time in the Eastern Conference finals, the Miami Heat are feeling the heat. Not just the sweltering humidity of their home base, but the burning sensation of being under the most stressful of situations.

Pistons have fallen off behind the 3-point line
By DAVID BIRKETTOf The Oakland Press

One of the top 3-point shooting teams in the regular season, the Pistons have struggled with their stroke from beyond the arc in the Eastern Conference finals. Detroit made just 2 of 15 3-pointers in Wednesday's 91-78 Game 5 victory, and is shooting 28.9 percent this round. In the regular season, the Pistons had the third-best 3-point percentage in the league (38.4 percent), behind only Phoenix (39.9) and San Antonio (38.5).

A.Sherod Blakely's blog at MLIVE.COM

Looking beyond the playoffs, tough decisions looming
With the Pistons having workouts this morning with a bunch of players few have ever heard of, with Michigan’s Daniel Horton being the exception, it’s time to start at least peeking around the corner at next season.

[Associated Press]

Heat eliminate Pistons in Game 6 rout
O'Neal had 28 points and 16 rebounds and Dwyane Wade - who spent part of his day in a hospital battling dehydration and flu-like symptoms - added 14 points as the Heat ended the Detroit Pistons' two-year reign as Eastern Conference champions with an 95-78 win Friday.

Jason Williams, one of Riley's prized and numerous offseason additions, came up huge with Wade lagging in Game 6, scoring 21 points on 10-for-12 shooting.

[NBA.com]

Heat overcome Wade's illness to eliminate Pistons
Amid all the analysis, what this series came down to was making shots. In the clincher, Miami shot 56 percent (39-of-70) while Detroit managed just 33 percent (27-of-81).

"Every time we crawled back, we got open shots but just didn't hit them," Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince said. "I can't remember the last time we played defense like this. When you play defense like this and you give the other team a chance to set up their defense, that is when we became cold."

[Fox Sports]

CHARLEY ROSEN: How the Heat cooked the Pistons
What was the difference? The absence of the surprise element was the biggest. It's remarkable what a veteran coach and veteran players can accomplish during an off-day practice session. Once Shaq could identify who was where, and what were the available spaces in which he could maneuver, the Pistons would have needed a third Wallace to contain him.

Moreover, when a defense takes something away from an offense, they must necessarily create alternative scoring opportunities for their opponents. So, with Shaq circumscribed, Udonis Haslem was ceded open jumpers in Game 5 — and couldn't shoot himself in the foot. Come Game 6, however, Haslem shot well enough (4-9 for 8 points, with several of his misses coming late in the game) to take advantage of Detroit's anti-Shaq schemes.

For most teams, developing an all-inclusive offensive rhythm can take several minutes. That's why coaches like to have a starter who can unilaterally ring up points right out of the gate while everybody else is getting comfortable and coordinated. That's exactly what Jason Williams did — and more. Popping jumpers, blowing by Chauncey Billups to either score layups or toss dunk-me passes to Shaq. Williams' astounding 10-12 shooting and 21 points easily compensated for Wade's being hampered by a flu bug.

Saunders might feel the heat after first season
With Friday's setback in Miami, Saunders fell to 7-25 on the road in the playoffs. Only Mike Fratello (5-26) has been worse away from home among NBA coaches with at least 20 postseason games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The Pistons were 0-3 on the Heat's court, 1-2 at Cleveland in the second round and 1-1 against Milwaukee on the road in the first round.

[ESPN]

DAILY DIME: Finally, the Heat
Chris Sheridan: For now, the Heat have knocked off their nemesis and make it somewhere they've never been before. They'll return to work Sunday while the Pistons are back home revisiting how and where it all went wrong, wondering if their three-year run as the class of the conference has already come to an end.

"They did what we used to do as a team, forcing their will on a team and playing the way they wanted to play. When they had an opportunity to go out and take control, that's exactly what they did," Pistons center Ben Wallace said. "They were the better team."

Chad Ford: For most of the regular season, Saunders lived up to advance billing, and then some. The team performed at a very high level, making a run at 70 wins and showing more freedom and confidence than ever, and Saunders finished a strong third in the Coach of the Year voting.

However, he made some critical mistakes that might have cost the Pistons the title.

First, he refused to develop his bench. Not only did he ride his top six -- Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace and Antonio McDyess -- into the ground, but he never developed the depth necessary to provide them relief.

Talented players like Darko Milicic, Carlos Arroyo and Carlos Delfino sat around doing little or nothing. Eventually Arroyo and Milicic were shipped out, with the rationale being that the Pistons might as well get rid of them if the coach wasn't going to play them. Delfino will ask for a trade when the season ends.

Chris Sheridan: All Wallace needed to say Friday night was that he wanted and expected to return, but he wouldn't go even that far while initially ducking questions about his future and then giving a few vague answers before exiting the locker room and getting on the team bus that would take the Pistons to the airport for the long flight back to Detroit.

After firing his old agent and saying he planned to have an attorney (billing on an hourly basis rather than taking a percentage) negotiate his new deal, Wallace went out last month and hired one of the most powerful deal brokers in the business, Arn Tellem.

"I needed an agent, that's all that is," Wallace said. "You know, everyone needs somebody to talk for them every now and then. They get tired of hearing your voice."

[Detroit Bad Boys]

Heat in Six
Wow. This is going to have to sink in for a little bit. But I tip my hat to Miami. They played like they wanted it for six games straight, while Detroit kind of meandered around for a few games, panicked and then it was just too late. If Miami plays in the Finals like they did in this series, they may even win a game or two.

But is there anything more annoying than Miami fans? If the Pistons are going to lose, I'd at least like to see them lose to a team like the Cavs whose home fans aren't too cool to cheer the whole game. Miami had to settle for passing out those cicadas-sounding noisemakers which made the television broadcast nearly unbearable. And what's up with these guys below? You think the guy wearing the "E" said, "Wait, put powder on my face? No, that would be weird."

[Need4Sheed.com]

It's Over
[Nothing except a mushroom cloud ... and utter silence about a certain player who we did indeed need.]

[Detroit News]

Meltdown
"They just beat us, man," Antonio McDyess said. "They totally just beat us. Give them all the credit. They came out, jumped on us and we didn't have a chance. We tried to fight back, but we didn't have nothing to fight them with."

The Pistons at the end looked worn, ragged and beaten -- humiliated -- and now face a suddenly uncertain future. The accumulated fatigue of 83 playoff games over the last four years appeared to catch up with them. They were several steps slower than the Heat throughout the series, unable to match their intensity or aggression.

"It's just so disappointing to get to the end of the season and not be playing our best basketball, not even close," Chauncey Billups said. "It is really disappointing. But only one team is ever happy at the end and that's the champion."

Wallace laments 'wasted season'
MIAMI -- The Pistons' locker room, normally a boisterous place, was as quiet as a state funeral.

Players shuffled around in silence. Reporters lingered around lockers in silence. And Pistons center Ben Wallace, not one to usually make a lot of noise, was also very quiet.

Will there be changes?
Pistons president Joe Dumars said after Game 6 there would be roster changes next season, but it's highly unlikely he'll call for a major overhaul.

"I don't feel like this is the end of the run," Chauncey Billups said. "I just feel like it was one of those years where we just fell short. We have a lot of pieces here that hopefully can be here for a long time.

"What I hope is, we take the team we've got and get it better."

BOB WOJNOWSKI: Done
This was about recapturing something, that chip the Pistons once wore. They've always have been poor fat cats and great hungry ones. Maybe that astonishing 39-6 regular-season start and those four All Stars and all that praise came at a cost, at a loss of griminess -- that willingness to do whatever it took in the toughest times.

The Heat displayed more of a chip, more anger, as if grabbing something they thought they deserved. A year ago, the Pistons came into this same arena, beat the Heat in Game 7, then moved on to the NBA Finals. They left behind a Miami team to stew and scheme, to rebuild its roster, to rejuvenate coach Pat Riley and inspire O'Neal and anger Wade.

ROB PARKER: Cold shooting chills Pistons' title dreams
The Pistons lost because they couldn't score consistently. Period.

How do you fix that? It wasn't all jump shots. They missed layups, too. Really, it's almost unexplainable.

[Detroit Free Press]

Miami 95, Detroit 78: Heatstroke
"It's the way we came out and played," said Antonio McDyess, the only regular without a championship ring. "We didn't play the basketball we normally play. We didn't move the ball, didn't stop anybody on defense. Flip can only put so much in front of you, and you can only do so much in going on there and leaving it all on the court, and we just let them totally take our heart."

McDyess, a catalyst in the Game 5 win, was scoreless Friday. He wasn't alone in his offensive troubles. Billups went 3-for-14 for nine points and had eight assists. Rasheed Wallace was a ghost, scoring 10 points on 12 shots. Tayshaun Prince, always a quiet scorer, was simply quiet. He scored 10 points.

DREW SHARP: Pistons' two-year Eastern reign ends with empty feeling
The legacy of this disaster will be that the Pistons forgot who they were and what they stood for. They were strongest when they understood that they weren't the pick of the litter. They're mutts. They came to Detroit as cast-offs and attained a high level of success because the five starters fused their respective strengths together for a common goal.

They forgot that in the flurry of accolades and acknowledgements over the course of a 64-win regular season and 80% of the starting lineup earning All-Star consideration. They got bloated from an inflated sense of self-importance.

Hopefully, the humility from their precipitous drop from lord of the manor to basement dweller will serve as a valuable lesson in the critical weeks ahead.

MITCH ALBOM: Burned out
Perhaps the saddest part for Pistons fans is that their players in this series, uncharacteristically, talked a better game than they played. They talked about moving. But they didn't move. They talked about having confidence. But they didn't play with confidence. They talked about putting pressure on Miami. But Detroit was the team with a piano on its back.

Here was Prince, Friday night, missing an open lay-up on a fast break. Here was Rip Hamilton throwing a ball over Ben Wallace's head. Here was Antonio McDyess with butterfingers on what could have been two easy baskets. Here was Billups hitting more iron that a blacksmith, and Rasheed Wallace, a rhythm shooter, showing all the rhythm of a kid banging his alphabet blocks together.

Chauncey had three baskets all night. Tayshaun had three. Rasheed had four. McDyess and Lindsey Hunter had none. It was embarrassing. Beneath them. No way for former champions to go down. But when you choose to live on a ledge, you are not allowed a single misstep.

Pistons Corner: Big Ben's heart says stay in Detroit, but ...
Wallace, who won his fourth defensive player of the year award, will be 32 in September, meaning a max contract of six years would lock him up until he's 38. That's not something Detroit wants to do.

Teams such as Chicago and Atlanta might push the price and amount of years on the deal into an area the Pistons don't want to go.

If so, it will be up to Wallace and his new powerful agent, Arn Tellem, to decide what is really more important -- inking his final deal of his career for as much as possible or staying in Detroit for another crack at a championship, even if it nets him only a three- or four-year contract.
One thing is certain -- the players think they need Wallace back if they want to stay at the elite level for at least another season.

"We'll be fine," point guard Chauncey Billups said. "The whole thing is, we have to get Ben back. He is the Pistons. ... Our whole thing this summer is we have to get Ben back."

...

After the loss, the locker room was understandably solemn. No one seemed to take it harder than Antonio McDyess, the only regular contributor who hasn't won a championship ring.

In his emotional state, he said he now didn't believe he ever would.

"This feels like the end," he said. "It doesn't feel like I'm ever going to come close to that ring again. They always say that a lot ... once you get to the Finals, it's hard to get back. My chance, it seems like I had the best chance of winning it last year. And now, it seems like it faded away, and I don't think it'll ever come back."

[And on that blue note, we draw the season to a close with hopes for next year. This has been LanierFan, signing off.]

Season stalled
blah blah blah blah blah we lost blah blah...

Pistons' run ends as Heat advance to NBA Finals

different words same story.

A stunner -- Wallace hits 3 free throws in a row
This column is about Shane Wallace age 10 from Grand Rapids. Poor tyke's been working on his range for weeks.

Ill Wade takes on different role to aid Heat
Espn beat this to death but mlive knows how to channel the afterlife apparently.

Thank you for all the hard work.

__________________
Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

What does it say that I find the grumpy summaries far more informative than the straightforward factual ones?

MITCH ALBOM: Walk of shame?
MIAMI -- Late Friday night, inside the American Airlines Arena, streams of happy people were celebrating an Eastern Conference finals crown. One group of Heat dancers was joined by a cluster of older fans, and together they came down the hall squealing and shrieking.
Some people think Mitch is an idiot but he tells good anecdotes

WHAT'S NEXT? Hopefully more defense, more swagger

On Saturday afternoon, under a sky sporadically spitting fat drops of rain, the Detroit Pistons sporadically emerged from the team's practice facility, carrying boxes of possessions to their awaiting Range Rovers and Escalades.

AUBURN HILLS - The suddenness of the collapse will keep the Pistons' organization spinning for a bit. It’s going to take a while to fully comprehend and understand all that went into it.

B. Wallace indicates he wants to return
By DAVID BIRKETT
Of The Oakland Press

AUBURN HILLS - Ben Wallace found some room for humor after the Pistons' premature exit from the NBA playoffs Friday. On the three-hour flight back to Detroit from Miami, with his
teammates prodding him about his pending free agency and encouraging him to re-sign with the Pistons, Wallace shared a couple of laughs that, for a minute, dulled the pain off the 95-78 Game 6 loss.

Dream season falls flat
By DANA GAURUDER
Of The Oakland Press

Call it the 'Curse of the Darko.'

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