Still Defending, Still Champions

Shaquille O’Neal promised he would win a championship for the Miami Heat. It won’t be happening this year.

The Detroit Pistons, with a coach who might be bolting in the future and a November brawl that threatened to disrupt them in the past, reminded the rest of the league they’re still the defending champions, beating the Heat, 88-82, Monday in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The Piston defense was unyielding, holding the Heat to 16 fourth-quarter points, and the legacy of a team that stunned the Lakers in last year’s NBA Finals continued in front of 20,241 at American Airlines Arena.

Larry Brown will coach at least four more games for the Pistons, in the Finals, which begin Thursday in San Antonio.

“Oh man, this is very rewarding,” said Piston guard Richard Hamilton, who had 22 points on 11-for-16 shooting, plus seven assists. “We went through a whole lot this year with the brawl, with guys being out, guys being hurt, Coach being sick and things like that. To be in this situation again, whew, it’s a great feeling.”

Good fortune also figured into the Piston equation, with Heat guard Dwyane Wade not quite himself because of a strained rib muscle. He had 20 points on seven-for-20 shooting and was able to play only after receiving a painkilling injection. He did not score again after a driving layup with 3:10 left in the third quarter.

“Anybody in my position would have done the same thing and came out and tried to gut it out, and that’s what I tried to do,” Wade said.

Said Heat Coach Stan Van Gundy: “When somebody is having to stick a needle in your chest just so you can go out and play ... I thought he was phenomenal.”

The Pistons will take it, the benefactors of better play in the final few minutes.

O’Neal, who had 27 points on 12-for-19 shooting, hit a short bank shot to give the Heat a 78-76 lead with 2:40 to play.

But then the Heat started missing free throws -- O’Neal and Damon Jones each missed one in the final 1:45 -- and the Pistons made theirs, Chauncey Billups sinking four of four in the final 16 seconds.

There were other plays that differentiated champion from contender: Hamilton converted a fastbreak layup with 1:57 left and Rasheed Wallace tipped in Tayshaun Price’s missed layup for a three-point lead with 54.7 seconds left.

“Just maybe they had more experience than we did,” O’Neal said. “The guys have to realize that before you succeed, you must first learn how to fail.”

The Heat was trying to advance to the Finals for the first time in its mundane 17-season existence, riding O’Neal as the savior after his arrival from the Lakers last summer. He even went as far as promising Heat fans a championship during a mid-July rally.

The story might have had a different ending if Wade had not been injured and if O’Neal had not been dragging around a bruised right leg for the better part of the playoffs.

As it was, O’Neal experienced a first -- a Game 7 loss. He had been 3-0 in such games, including the Lakers’ 89-84 victory over Portland in 2000 and their 112-106 overtime victory over Sacramento in 2002. He also won a Game 7 with the Orlando Magic in 1995 against Indiana.

It was the Pistons who celebrated Monday.

Wallace, who accurately guaranteed victory before Game 6, slapped a boxing-style championship belt around his waist after scoring 20 points in Game 7.

Billups, last year’s most valuable player in the Finals, had 18 points and eights assists Monday, and afterward said, “Once again, you know, we won the championship last year and people still didn’t give us that much of a chance in this series.”

The Pistons will again be underdogs. They get two days’ rest before the Finals begin. The Spurs, who will have had seven days’ rest after going 12-4 in the West, will be waiting.