Thursday, March 28, 2024

Pistons beat the Heat, to play Spurs Thursday

June 7, 2005

Richard Hamilton led the Pistons with 22 points on 11-16 shooting; he added seven assists and three rebounds. The road team also got 20 points from Rasheed Wallace and 18 from Chauncey Billups.

In the last minute of the game, with the score 80-79, Wallace tipped in a Tayshuan Prince miss to give Detroit a three-point edge. Miami's Damon Jones then missed one of two free throws, and Billups came back and hit two free throws on the other end to make it a four-point game.

Dwyane Wade led the Heat for most of the game, despite showing signs of his injured ribs throughout. Wade scored 20 and dished out four assists.

Shaquille O'Neal had 27 points and pulled down nine rebounds, scoring seven of Miami's last eight points.

Miami opened the game with a 9-4 run, behind four points from O'Neal and five from Eddie Jones. However, the Pistons hung tough as Hamilton and Wallace scored Detroit's final 10 points of the quarter and only trailed by two at the end of the first quarter.

In the second, the Pistons opened up the lead on a 9-2 run in a less than two-minute span, highlighted by a 3-pointer by Wallace.

Detroit did lead by eight points with under 10 seconds left in the first half, but a quick turnover led to a half-court shot by Eddie Jones, which snuck in before the buzzer. The Pistons led 45-40.

In every previous game, the team who led at halftime had gone on to win the game, and that statistic held true again. The Pistons did buck one trend, as they became just the 17th team in NBA history to win a Game 7 on the road.

The Pistons will now face the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night at 9 p.m. on ABC.


NBA Finals Schedule

Game 1
Detroit vs. San Antonio
Thursday, June 9
9:00 p.m. ABC

Game 2
Detroit vs. San Antonio
Sunday, June 12
9:00 p.m. ABC

Game 3


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Game 4


Game 5
San Antonio vs. Detroit
Sunday, June 19
9:00 p.m. ABC (if necessary)

Game 6
Detroit vs. San Antonio
Tuesday, June 21
9:00 p.m. ABC (if necessary)

Game 7
Detroit vs. San Antonio
Thursday, June 23
9:00 p.m. ABC (if necessary)

Source: The State News

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