The lady lies

Give it away now
Well, that wasn't too zesty. The Heat had three guys (Shaq, Butler, Zo) making contributions and none of the Pistons big men did much that was worthwhile. Due to the lack of Wade, there are only a few things I can take from this game. One, Rasheed may have been going Walker but with him barely shooting in game five and shooting like crap in game six, I think he'll respond by shooting very well in game seven. Two, a note that three things in a row is a pattern (or series). Rasual Butler has had two good games in a row. If you get my drift, well, he won't show up in game seven. I don't believe he's capable of a pattern of good games. Three, I take that Stan Van Jeremy will play eight guys at the most tomorrow. I mean, Smith had one previous playoff minute (why the heck did they trade for him if they weren't going to use him?) these playoffs before tonight, Laettner did absolutely nothing and Anderson hadn't played all series up to this point. Zo, Dooling and Butler will be the only ones to get time off the bench tomorrow, that might aid the Pistons. I think taking three things from that Wade-less beatdown is pretty good, personally. Well, I took more things, but those are the only ones that impact the next game. Also, on the topic of Eddie Jones and his cut... Chauncey got cut earlier in the series and had no foul called on him, but he didn't go crazy. He didn't shove the guy he was guarding (in Jones's case, Rip) into the crowd. You get the idea. It's already happened the other way, it can't be that terrible for him.

"What you say?", part two
I heard a lot of strange things come at me care of TNT before and during the game. I didn't listen to "after", but if I did I'd probably pick up on something else to go along with this. I'll number these chronologically. Note, since my memory can't distinguish between the voices of Kerr and Collins, I'll just refer to quotes between them as K/C.

1. The first thing out of the mouth of Sir Charles was "It's over tonight"
Thanks for playing, Chuck. I love hearing the guy speak, but... ouch! Not one of the better things he's said.

2. David Aldridge talks about how Brown showed the team tape of "Game 7 of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals"
This game is non-existant, of course.

3. K/C refers to how the Pistons played the Knicks in the 2004 playoffs
Again, non-existant.

4. K/C talks about how Steve Smith had a great game with the Charlotte Hornets earlier in the year against the Pistons
Who?

5. When the Heat were down about 20 points, K/C said that Van Gundy will take Shaq out and see if the team can come back
So he's going to take his best player out with his second best player injured... and see if the team can come back in the fourth quarter from 20 down. Makes perfect sense to me!

6. When Shaq came back in about three minutes after #5, K/C said that Van Gundy will put him in to see if Shaq can do something positive
But I thought Stan was going to see if the team could come back without him! And something positive? He wound up with 24, 13 and 5, most of that coming prior to the fourth quarter. What he got more of in the fourth instead were turnovers. Again, the guys aren't making sense.

Yeah, it kind of sounds like nitpicking... but there are six things they were factually incorrect about or way off about. As I said earlier, three is a pattern. Six is a long pattern.

Promises
I know I said I'd come big tonight, but... I really expected there to be more to talk about. Wait, I found something! Something stupid, of course! What would the world be without stupid stuff to make fun of?

It's time for another round of, "Let's judge a team with a roster full of injuries by how they played without their second best player for one game!"
A quote to start, as usual.

Van Gundy could take Wade, O'Neal and the last 10 players of almost any NBA roster, and he'd have a team capable of reaching the NBA Finals. Take away Wade from that collection, and Van Gundy would have what he had Saturday night -- humiliation.

O'Neal and Wade are that good. Eddie Jones, Damon Jones, etc.? They're that bad.

Thanks for that one, 3G. Always good to know that a guy who shot 43.2% from behind the arc during the regular season (43.7% in the playoffs) and a guy who plays great D, shoots well for the most part and routinely guards the opposition's best scorer are "that bad". Next this guy's going to tell us that Nash is only good because he has Amare and Marion to pass to. The Heat's supporting cast is great! They're dinged now, but they're still a very good team. Granted, they're not going to come close to winning game seven if Wade can't play, but honestly, who expects him to sit that out? I'm sure he'll do everything within his power to come out there, pain every time he breathes or not. To use an overly worn out phrase, I'll eat my hat if Wade doesn't play on Monday. One more thing, Wade's Roland Rating is -0.1 for the regular season. +4.8 for the playoffs, but that's still only fifth best on the team. But... but... without him there, they're so horrible! Oh, the lime-anity! Like many, the guy needs to do his research before firing up the word processor.