Go quietly into that good night? I don’t think so. We’d like another round trip ticket to south Florida, please. And get us two for Friday night at the American Airlines Arena, will ya? There’s gonna be a Game Six. Thanks so much…

Once again, the team that we have come to know and love during the regular season…yes, I said TEAM…showed up at The Palace and dominated the Heat from the opening tap. The extra pass, the hustle to run down a loose ball, the assists, the lack of turnovers…and finally, finally, finally…THE MADE FREE THROWS!

How about that sports fans? The Pistons shot 89% from the free throw line…yes, that’s not a typo, I’m not missing a decimal point. That is really 89% from the charity stripe. The team went 23-26 from the line, including 11-11 from Chauncey, 5-5 from Tayshaun and 2-2 from Rip and Dice each. In fact, the only thing that brought our percentage down were 50% performances from Rasheed (1-2) and Ben (2-4), and we’ll take that from Ben.

It’s a funny thing. I look at the stat sheet and honestly, we were close in nearly every category. Shooting percentage: 42.9% for us and 44.2% for them. Total rebounds: 42 for us and 40 for them. Total assists: 19 for us and 21 for them. Turnovers: nine for us and 14 for them. Three-point percentage: 13% for us (CLANG!) and 21% for them (BOING!!).

But here’s the telltale stat: FREE THROWS. 23-26 for us and 6-20 for them…89% for us and 30% for them. Final score, 91-78, a 13-point difference. Miami makes all their free throws and they win by one. They win by one, unless we make all of ours and then we win by two. It’s a simple thing…make your free throws and you win or at least give yourself a good chance.

Here’s another stat, and this one should worry some folks in Miami. Our starting guards, you remember those guys, right? They are the ones who played for the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game. One of them was an MVP candidate and the other has led the team in scoring since he came here from Washington. Yes, you remember them. Well, our starting guards were a combined 10-33 tonight. Check your calculators, sports fans because that is about 30.3%. And that’s not really good. Rip was 7-21 and Chauncey was 3-12.

Very soon, they are going to shoot well. And when they do, somebody’s in trouble.

The Heat’s starting guards? Well Dwyane Wade was better than 50% from the field again with 11-20 shooting, but Jason Williams was 2-7 and Gary Payton was 0-3. Walker was 4-12, Haslem was 5-14. I remember writing in an earlier blog that if we stop the Heat’s role players, we can win the game. I hate repeating myself, but history has repeated itself. So, shut those guys down and we will have a good chance to win.

The Palace was electric tonight. You could feel the excitement in the air and the fans were pumped. We hosted the Comcast Pavilion Grand Opening tonight and the fans were crowded around…to see us hack and chop a ribbon to celebrate the opening.

IDEA FROM THE INTERNS: Comcast should run a promotion every game where, during the game, they send a crew out to wrap a big ribbon around five cars in the parking lot and those cars are given a gift certificate for free Comcast cable for a month. If the person driving the car doesn’t have Comcast cable, then Comcast installs the cable for free AND the first month is free. I bet I could sell that one to the media! Will have to talk to someone about that.

Thanks to all that VIPs who showed up tonight for the Opening. And thanks to the Pistons Drumline who made it up for the Grand Opening Ceremony. They had to hold their roll a little bit longer than expected because the Mayor of Auburn Hills was having some trouble with the scissors…“Mayor, I noticed your grips were worn. I could put some stick ‘um on that. It’s my fault.”

“NEXT TIME BE MORE CAREFUL!!”

Funniest Moment of the Night: (Next to the Mayor’s struggle with the scissors, of course) The moment my assistant called me to tell me that all of the folks from the City of Auburn Hills had arrived and were checked in. The check-in began at 5:30 p.m. and ran through the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 7:45 p.m. Now, they are all checked in from the city. The time? 5:30:12 p.m. Good thing, their offices are close or they might have been a little late! Think they were excited for Game Five? Maybe they were excited about the food and beverage in the Ameriprise Financial Club…tomato, tomatoe!

Most Backstage Moment of the Night: Third quarter and I get on the elevator from my office to go down to check out more of the game. On the elevator is Barb, the operator and Matt, our VP of public relations. Sitting in front of Matt is a big, square looking, metal box on wheels. The box is solid and sturdy and looks like it can take a pounding for whatever precious cargo it is carrying, which must be very precious based upon the “official-ness” of the box. It is wrapped in Brink’s tape and has airline tags on it from New York. It looks very familiar, like the box I used to carry around during the summer of 2004 after we won the title, but it is smaller.

We go all the way down to the floor level and Matt wheels the box out of the elevator. I know it is the Eastern Conference trophy in the box and the NBA has sent it along, just in case it should be awarded tonight. It was 85 degrees outside and about 80 degrees inside, but I suddenly had a chill and broke out into a cold sweat. There was a real possibility that we were going home tonight…that we were done for the season…that tomorrow morning, the summer starts.

Uhhhhh…..no. Not tonight. No thanks. Not interested. Go quietly into that good night? Here’s what I have to say about that:

DEEEEEEETROIT BASSSKETBALLLLL!!!!