Mike Celizic

The best team, not the biggest stars, won. It seems as if we’ve said that a lot over the past two years when the Detroit Pistons have faced big games in the playoffs. Miami left a mountain worth of woulda, coulda shouldas on the court Monday night in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, enough to last through the summer and into training camp and on until next spring and another assault on the NBA’s holy grail.

Mostly, Miami and its fans will carry to their graves the certain knowledge that if Dwyane Wade hadn’t been neutralized by a rib strain, it would be the Heat going to the Finals against the Spurs, and not Detroit returning for a shot at back-to-back titles.

It’s easy to be certain when your season is over and someone else is still playing. But to watch the Pistons last year and this, especially when they were down, is to know that the only certainty is that Detroit won the games that they wouldn’t allow themselves to lose.

You can bet the NBA high command in New York secretly wishes it weren’t so. In a classic good news-bad news scenario, the good news is that the NBA Finals will pit the two best teams against each other, teams that play tight defense, run patient offenses, make the extra pass and then another extra pass. The bad news is that the teams happen to be San Antonio and Detroit and you can just go ahead and pencil in single-digit ratings for a match made in ratings hell.

The league has built its game on star power, and the two biggest stars left at the start of business Monday were Shaquille O’Neal and Wade. Two years ago, when the Nets and Spurs slogged it out for David Stern’s big golden basketball, the ratings for the series were around 7.5. A year later, with Shaq and Kobe in the finals against the Pistons, then series was utterly non-competitive, but the ratings broke double digits.

FREE VIDEO 'I couldn't battle' June 7: Miami coach Steve Van Gundy and injured star Dwyane Wade talk about the Game 7 defeat. NBC Sports

But, just like last year, Shaq fell afoul of an outfit that plays a total team game better than anyone in the league. And while it’s comforting to Heat fans to blame the loss on Wade’s ribs and Shaq’s contused thigh, it wasn’t stars who lost Game 7. It was a team that won it.

The Heat had a six-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but they scored just 17 points in that final period while the Pistons scored 24.

For the Heat, it was Shaq early then Wade shooting and missing, shooting and missing, shooting and missing while everyone else stood around and watched.

For the Pistons, it was everyone getting involved. Chauncey Billups hit the big three that tied it at 74. Rasheed Wallace climbed over everyone for a big putback late in the game that helped preserve the win. Rip Hamilton tied up Wade in the lane to force a jump ball and a change of possession. Ben Wallace, who had carefully saved his fouls during the first 40 minutes, was free to lay his body on Shaq without fear of fouling out of the game.

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