Pistons clamp down, even series vs. Heat
Hamilton’s offense, stellar defense leads to Game 4 win
 | Pistons guard Richard Hamilton drives to the basket. Hamilton scored 28 points in Detroit's Game 4 win on Tuesday against Miami. |
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AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Larry Brown’s uncertain future was not a distraction to the Detroit Pistons. On the contrary, it was barely in their thoughts.
Detroit ensured that the Eastern Conference finals will last at least six games, getting a big performance from Richard Hamilton on both ends of the court to defeat the Miami Heat 106-96 Tuesday night in Game 4 of their best-of-seven series.
Bouncing back strongly from a 2-1 deficit just as they did in the second round against Indiana, the Pistons took the lead for good after Shaquille O’Neal got into foul trouble midway through the first quarter and knotted the series 2-2 heading into Game 5 on Thursday night in Miami.
Game 6 will be Saturday on Detroit’s court in what could be Brown’s last home game as coach of the Pistons.
The 64-year-old Brown has met with the Cleveland Cavaliers about becoming their president of basketball operations, though he continued to insist Tuesday that he would like to continue coaching if his health allows it.
“We’ve got bigger things. We’re worried about the Miami Heat, not what the coach is doing or whatever,” Detroit guard Chauncey Billups said. “We don’t care about that now, we’re trying to win the series, trying to defend our championship, not worry about what’s going on after the season.”
The performance was the Pistons’ most dominant of the series after they lost Games 2 and 3.
Detroit did not have a single turnover in the first half, never let Dwyane Wade get into a scoring groove — thanks in large part to Hamilton’s defense — and was never seriously challenged in the fourth quarter.
“We’re in much better shape than we were after the other night. We all felt this would be a great series, and hopefully that’s the case,” Brown said. “We have to find a way to win one game on the road and take care of our own court.”
Hamilton scored 28 points, Rasheed Wallace added 20, Billups had 17 and the Pistons finished with six turnovers. The lopsided result even allowed little-used forward Darko Milicic to see his first playing time of the series — the final 93 seconds.
“For the night, their four main guys that they look to offensively, we didn’t do a good job on any of them,” Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. “Just a great, great game by them. A very complete effort on their part.”
O’Neal, limited by foul trouble to 8 minutes in the first half, had 12 points and five rebounds. Wade had 28 points on 10-for-22 shooting as Brown made a switch and used Hamilton instead of Tayshaun Prince as the primary defender on the Heat’s second-year guard.
“I got every shot I wanted. I hit some and I missed some, so it wasn’t a big thing to me at all,” Wade said.
Detroit also handed Miami its first road loss of the postseason. The Heat had been 5-0 against New Jersey, Washington and the Pistons.
O’Neal picked up his second foul just 6:14 into the first quarter with the score 11-11, and the Heat were behind 32-25 when he returned 2½ minutes into the second quarter.
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