Detroit At Miami Betting

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Eastern Finals Game 6 Miami vs Detroit - June 2nd, 2006

It is do or die for the Detroit Pistons tonight as they head to Miami for a much anticipated Game 6.

Bet Now: Eastern Confernce Finals

Detroit is down in the series, 3-2 but is still alive thanks to a 91-78 home win on Wednesday night.

The Pistons are trying to become the 9th team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 deficit in the playoffs. Phoenix did it in the first round this year against the Lakers. San Antonio almost did it in the second round against Dallas, but they could not close the deal in a Game 7 at home.

When you try to psychoanalyze the mental state of these teams, it can pretty much go either way. You can make the case that Miami will play tight tonight knowing that a loss means they would have to win in Detroit in a Game 7.

Or, you can make the case that since Miami knows they must win tonight, they will come out with guns ablazing and take care of business. I am more a believer of the second scenario which is why so few teams have come back from 3-1 deficits.

What a lot of people fail to realize is that Miami has never made it to the NBA finals in their history. Granted, they were an expansion team that only came into the league in 1988-89, but they had a lot of good squads in the Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway and Jamal Mashburn era.

Those teams couldn’t get over the hump even with Pat Riley as their coach. Thus, this game is a huge event for all of South Florida and the crowd will be going crazy starting from the introductions.

On the court, 34 year-old Shaquille O’Neal is playing all-out to get another championship under his belt. Shaq is averaging 20.5 points per game and 9.4 rebounds in the series. The “Big Diesel” may not run at full speed for 82 regular season games, but he knows how to turn up the engine in the post-season.

Another key statistic is that Miami has seven players averaging at least 26 minutes per game against Detroit. That doesn’t include Alonzo Mourning who plays 11 key minutes per game backing up Shaq. Detroit’s rotation has been seven guys, and their starters are forced to play a lot more minutes. That could make the difference in the 4th quarter of this game.

Detroit is going to need tremendous outside shooting early in this contest to quiet the crowd and take some steam out of the Heat. Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton are more than capable of making those big shots. However, the team is also to need Rasheed Wallace to step up, and score more than the 10 points he is averaging in this series.

If not, there will some major partying in South Beach after the game, even more than a normal Friday Night.

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