MIAMI -- Eddie Jones took a seat on the Miami bench late in the first quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, and Detroit shooting guard Richard Hamilton suddenly couldn't miss.
In less than three minutes, Hamilton -- free of the defensive shackle that Jones is -- made three shots to end the quarter.
Consider that a lesson learned for the Heat.
Hamilton has gotten his points so far in this series, averaging a team-high 18.5 per game. But Jones and the rest of Miami's perimeter defenders are making the Pistons' best shooter work for everything he gets.
"You've got to be right where he's at," Jones said. "Contest the shots. Don't die on screens. Don't just give him wide-open shots. He's a great shooter. Anytime he's coming off those downscreens and he gets to that gap, he's pretty much automatic."
Hamilton, who was getting treatment on his hurting right calf and did not speak to reporters after the Pistons' practice in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Friday, said after Game 2 that the injury is affecting the balance of his jump shot, causing him to slightly alter how he uses his legs while shooting.
But clearly, the Heat -- Jones in particular -- also have a bit to do with Hamilton's struggles.
"I can't tell y'all what I know about him," Jones said. "I study a lot of film. How about that?"
With Jones on the floor, Hamilton is shooting 11-for-37 in the series, or 29.7 percent.
Without Jones shadowing his every move, Hamilton has taken six shots and made four.
"I think we've done a good job with Rip Hamilton," Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We haven't given him anything easy. He's probably looking and saying that we haven't done anything, that he's just had a lot of shots that he's missed. And both things are true."
Detroit's frontline players like Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace are perhaps among the NBA's best at setting screens, and Hamilton excels coming off those human roadblocks.
"They make sure they try to get the guy open," Jones said. "They do everything to get him open."
Miami is also finding chasing Hamilton isn't much fun, either. Reserve guard Keyon Dooling, one of Miami's fastest players and quickest defenders, said Hamilton might be the best-conditioned player in the NBA.
"There's not too many players like Rip Hamilton. ... And when he's curling into the paint for short shots, he's probably the best in the game at that," Dooling said. "They do a good job of getting him open off screens and then they do a good job of countering if you try to go over the top."
It's Jones' primary job to stop him.
He's been oft-maligned during his stay in Miami, high expectations accompanying the seven-year, $86 million contract he signed a few years back. Fans have booed him incessantly at times. Yet with the emergence of Dwyane Wade and the arrival of Shaquille O'Neal in Miami, Jones' role has changed.
When he went to the foul line late in Miami's Game 2 win, the sellout crowd stood and roared "Ed-die! Ed-die!" -- even though Wade, with 40 points, was the star of the show and Jones was merely 2-for-8 from the floor with six points, seven rebounds and four turnovers in 42 minutes.
Defense won him the acclaim.
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Injuries to key players and defense on Detroits home court.
Got to love it.
