Miami – The Detroit Pistons beared witness to the heroics of Superman and Flash on Saturday night.
The aforementioned are the nicknames often of Miami Heat All-Stars Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade, respectively. And in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, both put together super performances as if they had capes hanging out of their jerseys combining for 62 points during Miami’s 98-83 victory over the Detroit Pistons at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat took a 2-1 lead with the win in the best of seven series.
“They had an unbelievable game tonight,” Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, a Denver native, said. “Those are their two horses. That’s who they’re going to depend on to win the games, and today they came out and they were dominant… We have to take a look at probably what they’re doing because if they play that way the rest of the series, there’s going to be some long nights for us.”
In their two seasons together, Wade acknowledged that this night was probably their best- combined playoff performance.
Wade scored a game-high 35 points on 13-of-17 shooting, made 9-of-11 free throws, grabbed 8 rebounds and had 4 assists in 43 minutes. O’Neal had 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting, made 5-of-10 free throws, grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds and had two steals in 36 minutes.
“Things were working for us,” Wade said.
Said O’Neal: “(Wade’s) a great player, great surface player. We have that connection.”
The Pistons shot 42.2 percent from the field, only had 11 assists and gave up 14 turnovers while Miami made up for having just 11 assists by shooting 58.2 percent.
Outside of Billups and Rip Hamilton (20 points), the rest of Detroit combined for 32 points on 10-of-32 shooting.
“We’ve got 11 assists, 14 turnovers,” said Billups, who scored a team-high 31 points and nailed 4 3-pointers. “We shouldn’t even have a chance to win.”
Behind O’Neal and Wade, the Heat entered halftime with a 49-38 lead. O’Neal had 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 8 rebounds at the intermission while Wade had 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Wade added 10 points in the third quarter while O’Neal added 8 to lead Miami to a 74-62 lead by quarter’s end.
Billups got the Pistons back in the game with back to back 3-pointers to trim their deficit to 74-73 with 6:08 left. But Detroit would get no closer as Miami finished the contest with a 24-15 run to get one game closer to the NBA Finals.
How important is Game 4 on Monday night?
A win for Miami on Monday, and the Pistons must win three-straight to get to the NBA Finals. The Pistons haven’t won three straight in a series since last year’s conference semis versus Indiana. Since then they’ve played 29 games, including Game 3 on Saturday, without winning three in a row in any series. But a win for the Pistons on Monday and they have two of three games to win to advance with two possibly at home.
“Monday is going to be huge,” Heat forward Antoine Walker said. “We have to take it as a Game 7-type of game. We’ve got a golden opportunity to go up 3-1 and really put them behind the eight ball.”
Said Billups: “It’s a huge game. It’s the biggest game of the series, pretty much, Monday’s game. I know they know that and we know that. We have to come in and play with a sense of urgency early in the game, and hopefully it carries through the game. We’re down 2-1 right now, and we have to go home tied up.”
Staff writer Marc J. Spears can be reached at 303-820-5449 or mspears@denverpost.com.