The Heat is On!

Bring it Miami.

The Pistons did it again with their backs against the wall, shutting down LeBron in the second half, and...well....everyone on the Cavaliers the rest of the game to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the fourth straight year. Cleveland was held to the least points in the history of NBA Game 7s, breaking the record previously set when the Pistons held NJ to 68 a couple years back.

Lots of credit to Detroit for pulling that series off, even if it shouldn't have taken as much time as it did (we'll see if that comes back to bite them against Miami). LeBron was unreal in the first half, but Detroit did a great job shutting him down in the second. Maybe Nike's new shirts should say "Witness Protection Program", because he disappeared down the stretch.

It wasn't pretty--especially when Detroit was at the free-throw line--but they got it done and now they move on to take on the Heat. You have to believe that Billups needs to be a bigger part of the offense next series. Miami's got Jason Williams and Gary Payton to guard him. Neither one of them can handle him...and if they try to move someone else over there, then Williams or Payton will be on Hamilton, which works too. I'm looking forward to it!

One thing which I forgot to mention after game 6, but has to be brought up: Did anyone see Matt Shepard's interview with Usher? Outkast's "Hey Ya" was playing in the background while Shep interviewed Usher, and at the end of the interview, he said something along the lines of "Hey, they just got done playing your song too." He couldn't be more white.

Congrats to Michigan Baseball on winning the Big 10 Title, despite their facilities and to softball for advancing to the Super Regional. Ritter is amazing. 19 strikeouts today out of the 24 outs in the game? Only one walk--and that on a hit batter? Unbelievable.