NBA Playoffs - Day 29

Heat Starts ' No Excuses ' Campaign With Win

Miami 91 Detroit 86

The Pistons played like pussycats in the face of a real competition and as expected lost. Miami starring foul plagued Dwayne Wade toyed with the Pistons to win the series opener. Wade played only 25 minutes and scored 28 points. Shaq , saddled with fouls as well , still proved to be a handful to the Piston's big men. Like in the New Jersey series , the slugs took care of business. Walker continued his excellent performance this time against defensive specialist , Prince. ' He is very hard to guard , Walker can put the ball down or pop it from afar ' said Hubie Brown . Payton was active all througout the game. He held his own against Billups. More important , Payton held his own ...mouth in control. No thrash talking to wake the lethargic Pistons like in this photo during his Lakers days.

The Pistons lack the swagger on display in their series vs. Cleveland. The players don't think so . ' We are OK. We still have the shots but they're just hitting the front of the rim . We will be ready in the next game ' said Billups . They better be or else it is going to be a short series. This is the type of game that Vinny Johnson excelled. . A member of the Detroit ' Bad Boys ' of the 80's. The coach puts Vinny to provide ' instant offense ' . Vinny was the original Microwave ' . In one playoff game , Vinny had a head to head collisioned with teammate , Adrian Dantley , putting both out of the game in the very critical period. The Pistons lost the game and was eliminated with Vinny' unexpected departure . The following year , Detroit captured the NBA championship. Vinny was the missing link to the NBA crown and some say to ,,,,

The Heat adopted the ' No Excuses ' motto. ' Wade is healthy and Shaq is healthy . The supporting cast is stronger . All the ingredients are here. ' said coach Pat Riley . All the Heat players need to do is leave their ego on the door and the rest will be alright. There is definitely no more excuse. How appropriate to use ' No Excuses ' as the motto. But for sure Riley knows that Donna Rice used ' No Excuses ' for her jeans ad. For those who do know , Ms. Rice , was the one who brought an end to Gary Hart's 1988 US Presidential campaign . At that time , Hart was ahead by 20 percentage point of his closest opponent for the Democratic nomination. Hart was photographed with Ms. Rice sitting on his lap. He lost the nomination.

It's just that Rice and eggo are both appetizing . Riley better hope that putting Heat to Rice and Egg o will not make the mix combustible !