Tonight is the night which promises the end of a Pistons dynasty. There are weaknesses about the Pistons the experts are speaking about and fans are irritated over but I am just going to say that the Heat have been that good. I was watching the Heat-Pistons game 4 and even though it was looking close at the end of the first half with a point separating the teams, the Heat looked firmly in control.

It showed as the gap opened up in quarters three and four - gaps which looked much bigger than they actually were at points in the game. A lot has been spoken on Dwayne Wade. All the praise is rightfully deserved but more impactful for me is the combination with Shaq and the rest of the guys - that damn good for me to win the championship this year. First, the Pistons dynasty must end.

The victory for the Suns to tie the series 2-2 was important because we needed at least one series to go into a game 6 if not a game 7. Else, we could have faced the situation of March Madness - good early on only to fizzle out when it mattered most. The fear was so big that Matthew Sussman even suggested the playoffs to close when the conference semi finals ended. The Suns resurgence is very promising.

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Starting this week, we have a new feature at Sportolysis. In Visitors, I invite one person each week to share perspectives on a sport, a sporting event, sporting aspects or any thing in between. This week, Jon Reed of Complete Sports joins us to give his thoughts on the NBA Playoffs 2006 till the conference semi-finals and looking ahead at the conference finals.

By Jon Reed

What have we seen so far? Try 9 OT games, lots more that were decided by 1 or 2 points, and the biggest young star in the NBA proving that he can get the job done in the playoffs. Ah yes, the rebirth of the NBA.

We’ve seen one of the best conference semifinals ever, when we had arguably the top 2 teams in the NBA (San Antonio and Dallas) square off in an incredibly well-matched series, where only one game could be considered “not close.” We saw a series between Cleveland and Washington that featured Cleveland making 3 game-winners in the last 5 or so seconds. We’ve seen running and gunning from Phoenix throughout the playoffs, and we’ve seen tight defense in Game 7 when the Pistons needed the win.

We’ve seen countless incredible performances from stars. LeBron got a triple-double in his first playoff game. Tim Duncan did everything but drain a couple 3-pointers against the Mavs (incredibly without drawing a foul), but even he was topped by the heroics of Dirk Nowitzki. Dwyane Wade’s been knocked down many times, but he has the Heat in the conference Finals. Shawn Marion has played over 40 minutes a night, guarding guys like Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Chris Kaman, or Elton Brand, and all the while he’s been the Suns #2 scoring threat. The individual performances have been incredible.

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