Heat/Pistons: Keys to the Series

The Eastern Conference Finals begin on ESPN in roughly and hour and a half. To save you the trouble of having to listen to Bill Walton or Hubie Brown (the latter is a thousand times better than the former) I’ll give the keys to the series for the Pistons and the Heat.

(I know I said I wouldn’t comment on the Pistons anymore, but I lied. Lay off me, I’m starving.)

How the Heat win:
Offense:
1. The pick and pop with Antoine Walker or the screen in roll with Udonis Haslem.
The Cavs were extremely successful with isolating LeBron at the top of the key and then running either a pick and pop/screen and roll with their bigs. Dwayne Wade could easily do this and look for the Heat to go to it early and often.
2. Twenty points from Walker and Gary Payton.
Shaq, Wade and Haslem will get close to 70 points between them. Twenty more from Payton and Walker will put the Heat near 90 points and the Pistons will have trouble matching that every game.

Defense:
1. Hack-a-Piston.
The Pistons are a poor free throw shooting team. Cleveland began fouling the Pistons when they went in for easy lay-ups. Instead of the Pistons getting a three-point play, they were lucky to settle for one point.
2. Defend the perimeter.
This Detroit team, unlike last year's, will jack-up the three. If Miami doesn’t get out and guard them the Pistons can get 18-30 points from beyond the arc.


How the Pistons win:
Offense:
1. Ball movement and cuts.
When the Pistons struggle to score points it’s because they begin to get in their sets late in the shot clock and run too many isolations. Miami is not as fast as Detroit and the Pistons should be able to get Rip and Tayshaun into the lane frequently for easy buckets.
2. Offensive Rebounds and hustle points.
This has been the trademark of the Pistons for quite some time, but they sometimes forget this and begin to think they can out-finesse their opponent. Good defense will create easy offense and offensive rebounds almost always lead to easy buckets.

Defense:
1. Don’t let Walker and Payton get twenty points between them.
Payton may have trouble going against Chauncey Billups and Lindsey Hunter and Walker will most likely get frustrated and take bad shots because of Tayshaun’s defense.
2. Help side defense.
Wade will get into the lane many, many times in this series, but if Wallace, Wallace and McDyess can rotate and congest the lane they will not only limit Wade’s offense, but they may also get him into foul trouble.


Heat Unsung Key Player – Udonis Haslem
Pistons Unsung Key Player – Lindsey Hunter