Here is a preview I found online that is pretty good...
Game 5 in the Detroit-Miami series is history and Game 6 is ready with its own tale to tell Friday night. Will it be a victory for the Heat and the franchise's first-ever trip to the NBA Finals? Or will Detroit once again stave off elimination, force a Game 7 at home Sunday and keep alive its dream of another NBA championship?
Things looked bleak for the Pistons when they dropped Games 3 and 4 in Miami and fell into a 3-1 series deficit. But, facing elimination for the third time this postseason the Pistons came through for the third time, defeating the Heat 91-78 Wednesday night as a six-point home favorite.
But the Pistons got back to their swarming ways in Game 5 and and Tayshaun Prince scored a career playoff-high 29 points to lift Detroit to victory. The Heat did not score in the final 3 1/2 minutes while Detroit pulled away with the last nine points of the game. Miami also hurt itself by going 6-of-20 from the free throw line while Detroit was 23-of-26.
"We just came out aggressive like we talked about and played Pistons basketball," Chauncey Billups said. "There's pressure on them now, now that they are home."
"Ain't no pressure on us at all, we have a golden opportunity to win Game 6 on our home floor," Miami's Dwyane Wade said. "They're the defending conference champions, there's no pressure on us."
Wade scored a series-low 23 points -- eight below his previous series average -- and Shaquille O'Neal had 19 points for the Heat.
"They played hard and like a desperate team," Wade said.
The clubs split Games 1 and 2 at the Palace. Miami took the first game 91-86 Tuesday night as a 5.5-point dog. Then in Game 2 the Pistons jumped out to a big first quarter lead then held on for a 92-88 win. The win snapped the Heat's five-game playoff win streak though it got the cover as a six-point underdog.
It looked for a time then that the Pistons would get their win in Miami in Saturday's Game 3. They battled back from a 12-point deficit to cut the Heat lead to one (74-73) with seven minutes-plus to play. But from there the Heat scored 24 points (which is a lot) and the Pistons 10 (which is too few). The Heat had a 98-83 win and the cover as a three-point chalk.
Then came Monday night's Game 4 when the Pistons again fell short. Trailing 23-17 after 12 minutes and 44-38 at the half the Pistons cut the Heat lead to 62-60 going to fourth quarter but then were outscored 27-18 down the stretch in a 89-78 loss. Miami once again got the cover as a two-point chalk.
Dwyane Wade scored 12 of his 31 points in the final quarter Monday night to lead the late Miami charge. With that win and the Wednesday night loss Miami remains on the cusp of its first trip to the NBA Finals. But the Heat remember last year when two chances at ending Detroit's reign atop the East weren't enough for Miami, as the Pistons rallied from 3-2 down to win in seven games.
"We don't want to get too high and mighty," Shaquille O'Neal said. "Job's not done yet."
Teams taking 3-1 leads in the penultimate round -- either the conference finals or division finals, as they were once known -- have prevailed 40 times in 43 previous opportunities, and each of the last 16 teams with a 3-1 cushion has gone on to reach the NBA Finals.
Led by Wade and O'Neal the Heat shot 28-of-51 (.549) in Game 4. They went to the free-throw line 47 times, making 28, to 12-of-22 for the Pistons. The Pistons shot 30-of-77 (.390) from the field and had a slight edge on the boards (36-35).
But in Game 5 the Heat shot just 34-of-77 (.442) from the field and 4-of-19 from three-point range. It lost the battle of the boards 42-40 and turned the ball over 14 times to just nine for Detroit. Turnovers and free throws were the difference in the game as the Pistons shot just .429 (33-of-77) from the field and were 2-of-15 from three-point range.
The Pistons and Heat finished with the best records in the Eastern Conference and were expected to meet in the third round of the playoffs for the right to play in the NBA Finals.
The Pistons finished 64-18 during the regular season including 27-14 on the road. As expected, they blew past Milwaukee in five games in the opening round but then unexpectedly fell behind three-games-to-two versus the upstart Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round. The Pistons had to rally to win the series, taking Game 6 in Cleveland 84-82 and Game 7 at home in Detroit 79-61.
Miami finished the regular season with a record of 52-30. It was 31-10 at home. It had an opening round tussle with the Chicago Bulls, finally taking Games 5 and 6 to win the series four-games-to-two. Then it was expected to have a tough series with New Jersey, especially after dropping the opening game, but then took the next four games from the Nets to close out the series in five games.
JT
