Detroit (36-19) at Miami (28-29)

Game Info: 8:00 pm EST Fri Mar 2, 2007
TV: ESPN

By JEFF MEZYDLO, STATS Writer

One season after facing the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals, the Miami Heat might settle for playing them in the first round. That may only happen if Shaquille O'Neal keeps stepping up his game.

On the verge of finding out if Dwyane Wade will even return this season, the Heat look for another strong performance from O'Neal on Friday as they open a six-game homestand against the surging Pistons.

Fighting to remain in the playoff picture without Wade, O'Neal took control in the Heat's 92-83 road win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday. Using a variety of inside moves, O'Neal scored a season-high 23 points to go with 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks in 37 minutes against one of the East's top teams.

"A lot of people don't think he can play anymore," Miami coach Pat Riley said. "That's why they guard him one-on-one. They're making a big mistake if he keeps getting his rhythm down."

O'Neal, who missed 39 games because of a knee injury, is averaging 15.2 points and 6.9 rebounds in 18 games. With Wade out, the Heat can use more games from O'Neal like the one he had Wednesday. It appears the three-time NBA Finals MVP is starting to feel more comfortable, averaging 19.8 points and 9.8 rebounds in his last five games.

"I don't have the same 1,000-percent explosiveness," said O'Neal, who did not play in an 87-85 home loss to Detroit on Nov. 30. "But it's coming back."

Wade might not be coming back anytime soon, and Miami is 2-2 without him. He plans to decide by the end of the week if he will undergo season-ending surgery for his dislocated shoulder or go to rehab in hopes of returning later this season or in the playoffs.

While Wade averaged 26.7 points in last year's conference finals, O'Neal was nearly as big a factor in Miami's six-game victory over Detroit as he averaged 21.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. His presence could mean even more in a rematch this postseason, not only due to Wade's situation, but because the Pistons may be more vulnerable inside with defensive standout Ben Wallace no longer on the team.

"I'm known as 'The Big Sewer,'" O'Neal said Wednesday, "because I've got a lot of you-know-what in my game."

The Heat, winners of a season-high seven straight at home, are seventh in the conference but only a half-game ahead of New Jersey for the eighth and final playoff spot and one game in front of ninth-place Orlando.

If Miami does qualify, it could open the playoffs against Detroit, which has built a sizable lead atop the East by winning four straight and 11 of 12.

The Pistons (36-19) have not played since a 95-93 home win over Chicago on Sunday, and they hope forward Rasheed Wallace benefited from the time off. He could be in the starting lineup Friday after leaving Sunday's game with an ankle injury.

"We decided to not take any gambles," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. "He could've come back."

Chris Webber helped make up for Wallace's absence, matching a season high with 21 points and hitting a putback with 2.2 seconds left that gave Detroit a win over the Bulls and Ben Wallace. The Pistons are 15-4 since acquiring Webber after he was let go by Philadelphia.

"I'm not trying to replace Ben," said Webber, who is averaging 13.2 points and 7.0 rebounds with Detroit. "I just am playing like a guy that is happy to be a Piston."

:mccosky:


Sheed to sit

The Pistons aren't going to take any chances with Rasheed Wallace's left foot. He's going to sit out tonight's game against the Heat. If it were a playoff game, he would play, but it doesn't make any sense to stress it now -- especially in the first of a back-to-back set and with such a busy schedule the rest of this month.

As for who will replace Wallace tonight, Flip Saunders wasn't sure after shoot-around. First he said he was leaning toward starting Jason Maxiell, but had Antonio McDyess working with the first team during shoot-around. Afterward, he said he hadn't made up his mind.

Flip Murray was back with the team. His girlfriend had a baby girl. Lindsey Hunter took part in shoot-around and said he was feeling a little better. He'd been down with flu-like symptoms most of the week. Chris Webber's eye was responding well to the new medication. It was almost red-free this morning.

It's about time we sat Sheed's puck ass!!!!! I'm really looking forward to seeing Max play 20 minutes.

FYI, it's airing on WDIV as well as ESPN, for those who prefer Blaha.

J-Max!! J-Max!! J-Max!!

(starting lineup chant)

DD is starting, probably because Webber's D is so poor and Webber or Max on Shaq is not smart at all.

Max will probably sub in as soon as Shaq subs out.

I've wanted to see Dale Battle Shaq for awhile.

Without Sheed though, Fatboy gets to stand in the lane for the entire shot clock , I guess expecting the NBA to call that at this point is a futile complaint.

lol @ Greg Anthony having Shaq ranked higher all time at C than Wilt Chamberlain

I have a weird feeling that Shaq is going down with an injury tonight.

It's time for the karmic powers to rise up and get some retribution for that BS championship last year.

Wow, do we look like a team that has had a long lay off or what....

at this rate, shaq will be out of steam by halftime.

Did we practice at all during the layoff? It looks like we haven't seen a basketball in a week. At least we are wearing the appropriate red uniforms for our clown like performance.

That half gave me the shits. I smoked 8 cigs too.

And in all this -- no JMax.

(Yeah, there was a minor JMax sighting or two, but it sure as hell didn't feel like it.)

OK watching this game brings up one thing I dont understand about basketball and Im sure you guys can help me out. There have been a lot of plays where Shaq has scored where he backs down a defender to get closer to the basket. Every one of those times except for the two spins, the defender is shifting their feet when giving up the ground. All but those two times Shaq spun, he just backed into the basket. If the defender didnt move his feet and Shaq ran him over why wouldnt that be an offensive foul and why dont the defenders just not move their feet? I ask that assuming Shaq wont spin around every time, but if he even picked up two offensive fouls he would have four total right now and probably not be in the game.

edit: Id like to add that since Shaq is scoring at will anyway, might as well try to get a couple fouls on him.

remember that game where Chicago tried to put nocioni on Sheed, and Sheed just started laughing and shooting over him? that's what its like with Shaq and our big men.

Hopefully when Sheed is back in the playoffs, we can float off Sheed and Dice/Webber and spread the floor with jumpers, since Shaq sure won't be defending well away from the basket.

wow if billups made that 3, that would have been tight.

As soon as WEbber airballed that 3, I didn't expect to win. We had so much time when Cwebb got the ball.

and WTF was dice thinking alley ooping that shit. Get the board and dunk that shit in, it's not like there 0.2 seconds left.

I said it before and I'll say it again -- after last year, Chauncey is no longer Mr. Big Shot. He's just Mr. Shot or (in this case) Mr. Big Shit. I don't expect all of them to go through, but 2-14 and blowing -how- many wide open attempts? We missed Sheed, especially given how much they played Fatoine. I'm a bit surprised we kept CWebb out there as much as we did, as opposed to giving more minutes to DD.

To quote Zamir from Office Space, "That was horrible".

We played like clowns the first half, came all the way back only to put up some bullshit panic shots at the end. Not good. Not good at all.

Ahead by 3 points with 2 minutes left -- these are the games we should win.

I'm looking forward to playing these guys again with Sheed, mostly to see what kind of Shaq defense we throw. Defending him I think is going to be a bigger problem than in year's past.

The Refs arent going to let the Heat fail, furthermore though I think our staff has improved to be better than Riley's. Its still a fact the Riley owns Flip in the HC department.

I saw Shaq push off on every play and every spin move, He sat in the lane for ridiculously long times(only was called once for that), Posey traveled on every drive except one, and again our late game management left much to be desired.

Either way all the numb nuts who wrote the Heat off as if they dont have the Shaq to shove his dick in the refs mouths, need to look at this overall game. Miami will make the playoffs and will not be a pushover w/o Wade. When the calls are as bad as they were tonight, shaq can be all world. My main problem with Flip's approach vs LB's approach is that LB never worried about how much shaq scores, He worried about who else scored. Flip would double team too much and focus in on Shaq too much. Stop his outlets and the heat are a one man team.

And to the second set of Numb nuts who think Skeed is worthless, remember this game also. We had no go to guy on the blocks who could abuse the miami chump PF's besides webber, which led to alot of double teams, but it did show how good Dyess is when people double Webber. Either way hope Sheed comes back soon, and I hope we get a perimeter scorer for the bench.

Flip would double team too much and focus in on Shaq too much. Stop his outlets and the heat are a one man team.


exactly. That happened far too many times and when it happened we'd foul them and give them the and1. look at shaq's assists for the game.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070303/BLOG15/70303002/1051/SPORTS03


By the way, funny story about Wallace from last night in Miami. He sat on the bench during the terrible first half, and in my opinion, he looked just fine wearing a “walking suit,” which is a two-piece outfit with a matching top and bottom.

The top is a cross between a shirt and a coat; it buttons all the way down the front and has a collar and long sleeves. Sounds like it would fall in the NBA’s dress code, right?

Well, Wallace said he was told at halftime not to return to the bench in the second half because it wasn’t up to code. Apparently, players on the bench must wear a sport coat, and Wallace’s shirt coat did not qualify.

And since he doesn’t have anything nicer than that with him, he’ll be in the locker room tonight as well.

He's worn that before. Looks like pinstriped pajamas.

I wondered why I didn't hear a "ball don't lie" when Dyess had a clean block they called a foul.

Let me start by saying this: The Pistons deserved to lose. They played like ass, and even with the comeback they deserved to lose.

However, I am so sick of the double standard that the Heat and especially Shaq gets. He can hook, beat and push, and nothing is called. But if someone touches his off-arm that he's using to clear out the defenders' arms, it's a foul on the defender.

Case in point - Posey comes on an out of control fast break and throws something that was a half shot half pass and Tay grabs it and fumbles it around. Shaq, who is trailing the play, runs over Tay to grab it, beats the shit out of him, and while Tay is still trying to get the ball back, touches Shaq's hand as he's "shooting." Tay gets the foul. Give me a break. That shit needs to stop.

That shit needs to stop.
it won't and its gonna get worse until Wade gets back. Miami is the LA Lakers now. inside out with shaq getting all the calls as everybody gets passes from him. The refs will bail him out to no end I expect. The ONLY answer is to let him go for 60 and stop everyone else. I don't think Flip has the balls to do it and we may be in for some serious competition from them.

The way to beat Shaq is to run pick and rolls, up fake him, and take charges on him (BTW he was in the circle on the charge against Tay) and get him in foul trouble.

The way to beat Shaq is to run pick and rolls, up fake him, and take charges on him (BTW he was in the circle on the charge against Tay) and get him in foul trouble.

Ding ding ding ding ding! I've been saying this for years to my friends....That's why it was key for us to still run some offense through Ben when we had him....something LB knew but Flip didn't seem to understand. It also tires him out, which is a big help.

Which is why having both Sheed and Webber (instead of Mr Defense only) will help tremendiously. Force feed whoever Shaq guards and take him off the dribble. Force the fouls. Then they become the chuck show featuring Fatione, Kapono and J Will with Flexo scrambling for rebounds.

The way to beat Shaq is to run pick and rolls, up fake him, and take charges on him (BTW he was in the circle on the charge against Tay) and get him in foul trouble.
That won't stop miami though if you're double teaming his fat ass. You don't have to beat shaq on defense. While I agree with what you posted, that doesnt stop him. IMO LB's thing was that shaq can't outscore a team. You key in on perimeter players(which is what we did with Wade and kobe under the LB regime), but let the inside guys do as they please. just keep them from becoming "catalysts". The charges Ben took were gravy. But I don't think we are gonna get those calls these days looking at how that game was referee'd .

Agree Gutz, but at the same time what Chris is saying is that will make him a whole lot more tired on offense. Shaq rests on defense, which is where we should be wearing him down. By making him run, get through screens and move out of the paint, he will have limited in minutes, or much more vulnerable on offense.

A tired Shaq is a beatable Shaq.

That won't stop miami though if you're double teaming his fat ass. You don't have to beat shaq on defense. While I agree with what you posted, that doesnt stop him. IMO LB's thing was that shaq can't outscore a team. You key in on perimeter players(which is what we did with Wade and kobe under the LB regime), but let the inside guys do as they please. just keep them from becoming "catalysts". The charges Ben took were gravy. But I don't think we are gonna get those calls these days looking at how that game was referee'd .

no offense, but he can't beat you sitting on the bench. That's how you stop him. The refs are never going to call him correctly, so you have to take them out of the equation and put his ass on the bench. Run the pick and roll with Billups and his man and have Billups ride into Shaq and up fake him. I bet you at least half the time Shaq fouls him.

Not only that but Shaq doesn't even run down the court anymore, why would he run after a pick and roll? And if he does, he'll be huffing and puffing 3 minutes into his "shift."

Foul trouble is nice, but how many times did we beat him with it? i think its a great added incentive. but your main focus should be to make sure you dont fall into the trap of double teaming him.

bleh, honestly i'm really saying you gotta do both. just that avoiding early double teams is top priority. but if you can get him worn out, that helps too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/GlennDanzig/snaqattack.jpg

Had to pull out this old MS Paint favorite from the archives.

He was in foul trouble almost every game of the finals against LA if I remember correctly. I remember it being a recurring theme of the series, Shaq constantly having to take a seat or play less aggressively. One of the keys to our title, IMO.