OT: Reasons why Miami will defeat the Pistons

WutupLA · Starting Rotation Joined: 10 Apr 2005 Posts: 282

1. Shaquille O'neal is finally playing team ball. If his triple-double performance a short while ago was any indication, O'neal has been looking to help his team in other ways than scoring and living in the paint.
He is more active on the floor, has been defending much better, passing more, involving other teammates, rebounds, and has been finishing nicely.

2. Miami is a more stacked team this time around and more versatile. They are well rounded at every position, have a well replenished reserve corps and plenty of veteran experience. Shaq has plenty of back up big men to give him plenty of rest and a wealth of power forwards to do the gritty work down low. Alonzo Mourning has been the garbage man for this team and really been taking out the trash. Look for Ben Wallace's fro to be swept up in their as well.

3. Dwayne Wade is much quicker, faster, and stronger than he was last year. Is their any guess to how explosive he has been this year to the basket? When Shaq was out, he literally carried this team and 40-point performances came on a nightly basis. If the Pistons had trouble containing a much younger Lebron who has slower footspeed, how are they going to handle Wade? Not to mention Wade is a much better defender than Lebron. This is going to be a nightmare for Rip Hamilton and look for him to be in foul trouble late in games.

4. I could care less if the Pistons were lazy against the Cavs or their unwillingness to admit they were outplayed. Bottom line, the Cavaleirs had them figured out and with the amount of time Pat Riley had to prepare for them, they will watch all the game tape and make the necessary adjustments.

5. Antoine Walker has been a magnificent 3rd option as of late. With is combination of size, skills, and versatility, he will confuse the Pistons D in more ways than one. He will cause matchup problems with his size when smaller defenders are caught finding themselves having to cover him at the absolute wrong time. Walker will post himself up when possible and at the same time will use his shooting range to spread the defense. He is most lethal at the perimeter where he will effectively pull away their bigmen from the perimeter leaving room for Shaq to work in. When Shaq gets double teamed, it leaves Antoine Walker the wide open lane, and this has been effective in turning into alot of easy buckets.

6. Jason Williams may lack the D to keep up with Billups, but Gary Payton will provide help D off the bench to help slow him down. Phil Jackson may have held him back in the Finals and forced him to constantly run the tri. But Payton will be used for his helpful post up offense and that will surely make Billups play defense. No more Damon Jones to screw up the offense for Miami anymore, Jason Williams brings a more contolled style of playmaking as more smarter decisions will be made down the stretch.

7. The Cavaliers have shown how to cancel out Ben Wallace. He is not known for his offense but if he isnt even helping out on D, he is pretty much useless. Ben Wallace has been dunked on in countless plays during the first two rounds and players have been blowing by him. The blocks and rebounds have not been coming around for him often. Also, his free throw shooting has been absolutely atrocious, does he even bother try anymore? He takes Hack-a-Shaq to a whole new level.

8. The Pistons bench is paper thin, even if they have other reserves available they barely use them. Tony Delk was the guard they needed to come off the bench but his help has just been average. Outside of lindsey hunter and mcdyess, not much to look forward to. Their other big men are just used as extra fouls for Shaq, but Shaq has been decent with is free throw shooting lately, and if the Pistons try to employ the Hack-a-Shaq strategy on him, Riley just takes him out of the game. Problem solved.

If the Heat manage to stay healthy and lay the onslaught on Detroit, this series may not even last 6 games. Detroit always likes to lay back and bring their best later on, worked last time....won't work this time. You have to bring it every game if you want to win in this league. Last year was a rare opportunity and it probably won't come around again. One title pretender out the door and another to go.

junebug · Star Player Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 1601

This is the Lakers forum.

LA4Life · Star Player Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 1349

Heat will beat the pisstons because the Heat in the finals equals ratings while the pisstons in the finals does not. Very simple.
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shnjb · Franchise Player Joined: 08 Oct 2002 Posts: 13320

That's great.

Now post this on a Heat forum.

pawn · Starting Rotation Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 729

http://forums.lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?t=24631&sid=3236e385f7d6bf38a09a50a304d42ade

bambam · Star Player Joined: 03 Jul 2003 Posts: 9013

should have beaten them last year and would have if wade didnt get hurt.

detroit is a joke and miami will take them out w/ ease.

everyone was all happy about the spurs losing yesterday, if you dont want miami to win the title last night was the worst possible thing to happen for people that dont want to see shaq win another ring.

Laker Lurker · Star Player Joined: 24 Oct 2002 Posts: 7652

don't care much one way or the other. Just want to see good basketball games played.

Runway8 · Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 11:36 pm Post subject:

doughboy90650 · Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 12:04 am Post subject:

ArrOhBee · Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 12:06 am Post subject:

Reasons why miami will defeat the pistons.....................................................................Because they won game one
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2The4th · Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 12:12 am Post subject:

Pistons will start to play real defense and pick and roll, pick and roll. Shaq will fail to rotate just like he was in the past years. Miami will lose.

The Dagger · Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 3:39 am Post subject:

Pisstons were obviously tired and Fat fk was well rested. Next game Lard ass will be tired and the heat will lose.
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Shalashaska · Star Player Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 4091

Detroit has been looking vulnerable for a while now. Seems like a classic case of pushing too hard in the regular season and then gasping for air on an empty tank.

I dont want to see Snaq in the Finals again as much as the next guy, but right now the Pissedons really havent shown much. Either way, lets hope the big Fat Daddy falls flat once again, be it now or a month from now.

CheetahMan · Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 6:01 am Post subject:

Pistons were too tired and it's clearly visible looking how they shot in the game. When you shoot under .400 and the opponent shoots .568, you shouldn't expect to win the game. Billups and Rip have been both shooting awfully as of late, but should they find their shots, Detroit is in the Finals for the third time in three years.
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_LAKESHOW_ · Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 6:30 am Post subject:

its up to dwayne wade. period. no one else on that team has enough gas in the tank for a 7 game series. if he and alonzo turn it up, the heat could win it.

i dont see shaq holdin up and out of foul trouble for long.

i dont see gary payton or antoine walker puttin up numbers consistently.

jwill wont be consistent.

the bench overall will start to decline game 3 on.

detroit should and will win this series. nothing against miami. i actually could care less if either of these teams win. im not a shaq hater. not a detroit hater.

but i just think in the long run, detroit will take over.
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WutupLA · Starting Rotation Joined: 10 Apr 2005 Posts: 282

I believe in miracles too, Detroit is just a five-man team, with two off-and-on bench reserves.