How Dwyane Wade Emerged as a Superstar to Lead the Heat Past the Detroit Pistons
Unlike last year in which the Pistons started off the series by winning Game 1 of the series in Miami, the Heat started by winning Game 1 of the series at Detroit which had home court advantage of this series. Almost every team in the playoffs that has won Game 1 of a playoff series has gone on to win the series. That statistic held true for this series as well as the Heat went on to win the series in 6 games.
Another important part of the Miami Heat wining this series was the Miami Heat’s domination playing on their home court. The Heat won all three games of the series on their home floor in Miami. These three wins plus the Game 1 win in Detroit helped the Heat win the series. The Heat absolutely blew the Pistons out of the game when they played at home. The games at Detroit were close and that is how the Heat were able to steal Game 1 in Detroit and come out with a win.
The difference in this series featured two great coaches but the advantage had to go to Hall of Fame Heat coach Pat Riley who has been to 9 different Finals is third all time on Finals appearances behind Hall of Fame coaches Red Aurbach who has 11 Finals appearances and Phil Jackson who has 10 Finals appearances.
The Heat had dominating play by center Shaquille O’Neil who was guarded by Defensive player of the year Ben Wallace. Still Shaq had a great series and averaged 25 points and 10 rebounds a game to go with 3 blocks per game. Dwyane Wade who averaged 23 points during the regular season really had a great series as he emerged as a superstar.
Wade averaged 27 points per game in the series and had more than 30 points in a game twice. He also had 3 steals per game in the series and played great defense on Pistons scorer Richard Hamilton. Another great featured is that Wade has the ability to ignite a crowd with his breakaway dunks. He is a likeable player and his overall game is so great. He also has enormous leaping potential that he demonstrated in the series as he averaged 2 blocks per game. The chemistry that Wade and Shaq and the mutual admiration that both players have for each other is unmatched by any two sports players on any team.
