Wade gets help; Heat burn Pistons in conference finals opener

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By Paul Levine May 24, 2006, 10:07 GMT

Los Angeles - Dwyane Wade made the most of his short time, and when he sat down, his teammates stepped up. Wade scored 25 points in 27 foul-plagued minutes as the well-rested Miami Heat rolled past the weary Detroit Pistons 91-86 on Tuesday night in the opener of the Eastern Conference finals. 'It's tough to sit when you're used to playing a lot of minutes, but my teammates did a great job of keeping the lead and making plays,' said Wade, who hit nine of 11 shots. 'I was in a groove tonight and I didn't get a chance to use my groove,' he added. 'Hopefully, it's a different story in game two, and I can pick up where I left off.' Antoine Walker scored 17 points while Shaquille O'Neal and veteran backup Gary Payton had 14 each for Miami, which shot 56 per cent from the field to snatch the home-court advantage away from the Eastern Conference champions. 'Dwyane is the one who gets us motivated and moving,' Payton said. 'It would have been a lot better for us if we was on the floor longer, but unfortunately, he was in foul trouble, but we did a great job of stepping up and making shots.' Despite the victory, Miami coach Pat Riley said he knows that last year's rematch in which Detroit won 4-3 is going to be another knock-down, drag-out battle. 'This is going to be a dogfight,' he said. 'We're happy to be able to get the first one, and we're just going to get ourselves ready for game two.' Richard Hamilton scored 22 points, Chauncey Billups had 19 and Tayshaun Prince added 16 for exhausted Detroit, which shot 38 per cent from the floor two days after being forced to win game seven from the Cleveland Cavaliers to advance to the finals. 'I'm not going to use that as an excuse, but we had opportunities, but we didn't do it,' Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. 'Whether fatigue entered into it, I just know we didn't make good basketball plays at times. That's what's most disappointing.' Detroit is to again play host for game two on Thursday night before the best-of-seven series shifts to Miami. 'The game becomes huge, no question,' Saunders admitted. 'We have to grab the momentum of the series back.' Wade came out on fire in the opening quarter, hitting his first six shots en route to 13 points, giving the Heat a 33-25 advantage. 'We came out early, really focused and with a lot of energy because we'd been off for seven days,' Wade said. 'We got off to a great start, and that gave us confidence for the rest of the game.' But Wade went to the bench after his third foul with 7 minutes, 47 seconds left before halftime, and O'Neal took a seat next to his all-star teammate minutes later. However, led by Payton, the Heat extended a three-point edge to nine before carrying a 48-44 lead into the locker room. In the third quarter, Wade picked up his fourth foul with 7:14 left and the game levelled at 54. The Pistons took advantage and went in front 60-55 on Rasheed Wallace's jumper with 4:18 left. But Detroit missed its final nine shots of the quarter, and the Heat closed on an 11-1 run to take the lead for good on 3-pointers from Walker and Posey. Miami led 69-63 when Wade re-entered the game with 9:07 remaining. He hit a layup, jumper and three free throws, opening up an 80-67 cushion with 4:44 to play. 'I was very fresh - I couldn't wait to get into the game,' he said. 'Once I got in, I knew I was going to be aggressive.' The Pistons made a last-ditch run and drew within 84-77 on Hamilton's fast-break layup with 1:21 left to play, but Wade made four free throws around another layup by Hamilton. A 3-pointer by Billups brought the Pistons within 89-84. Wade, however, found Walker for a layup with 9.2 seconds remaining to seal the win. Despite the setback, Billups was upbeat. 'As bad as we played, we still closed the gap,' he said. 'They won by five points. They shot almost 60 per cent. You have to give them credit. They played good. They were encouraged. But I'm encouraged that we're going to be fine.' © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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