Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade reached a different level on the road to his first championship in 2006.

The third-year guard, alongside superstar center Shaquille O’Neal, avenged their Eastern Conference Finals defeat against the Detroit Pistons from the year prior. The Pistons, led by the trio of Richard (Rip) Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, and Tayshaun Prince, took the series to six games before falling to a monster performance from O’Neal.

Prince explained the biggest factor in the postseason defeat was the Heat’s motivation from the loss in 2005, along with the growing chemistry between Wade and O’Neal.

“Thing about it is that when you beat a team in the playoffs and you play them again, they make changes to their roster. So we beat Miami the year before,” Prince began. “They’re trying to figure out how to improve their roster already on top of the talent they had. Now Shaq’s there another year with D-Wade so that chemistry is getting better. That was the year Pat Riley came back to coaching. Now that happens.”

It was arguably the best playoff run of Wade’s career, averaging 28.4 points on 49.7 percent shooting. Prince and the Pistons were rooted in a lockdown defense, but even they struggled to slow down the Heat’s one-two punch.

“Once again, when you got two great teams, man, it’s always tough to beat those teams two times in a row,” Prince said. “Hungry D-Wade that year, that team was great man. Defensive battle.”

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Anthony Pasciolla works as a contributing writer to Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at ampasciolla@gmail.com or follow him on X @AnthonyPasci.