Miami Heat In NBA Finals

Heat- 95

Pistons- 78


The Miami Heat are headed to the NBA Finals for the very first time.

Even with Dwayne Wade experiencing flu-like symptoms; Shaquille O'Neal and the rest of the gang stood strong and finished off the Detroit Pitons 95-78.

O'Neal dropped an impressive 28 points, 5 blocks, 1 assist and 16 rebounds performance in the face of a Detroit Pistons team that was drowning in self-pity. O'Neal was 12-for-14 from the field.


For Detroit, who finised the regular season with the best record in the NBA at 64-18 could not contain Miami's friskiness.

Jason Williams, responded to the challenge of not having a healthy Dwayne Wade, by scoring 21 points.

Payton, Walker, Haslem, Williams, Posey. etc. stopped their big guns from getting off: Billups was 3-for-14, Rasheed Wallace went 4-for-12 in a 33 percent team shooting percentage from the field.

A dehydrated Dwayne Wade was a woeful 1-for-6 with four points in the first half, but the Heat still managed to take a 47-36 lead into intermission.

Wade made his triumphant return to the game midway through the third quarter, and did not disappoint. He recorded 10 points in the quarter, including hitting a smooth jump sot with 1 second on the game clock that not only whipped the crowd into a frenzy, but drained the remaining life out of the defending champs.

The Heat had a 72-53 lead going into the fourth. Richard Hamilton, who had 3 points for the Pistons tried his damndest to bring his team back, but Shaq and company stepped on the gas and closed the door on the Pistons.

Dwayne Wade finished with 14 points, 10 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

Pat Riley deserves all of the credit for surrounding his dynamic duo with a more talented group of guys who were insanely hungary.

The Miami Heat can now sit back and wait for the winner of the Mavericks vs. Suns series to end. The NBA Finals start on Thursday.