Rip Hamilton and then Lindsay Hunter will be responsible for guarding Dwyane Wade for the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. Carlos Delfino, a rarely used reserve, might also be used to defend Wade, said Flip Saunders.

''We just try to play him like we do anybody else, make it tough for him,'' Hunter said. ``You can't stop him. It's impossible to stop him, so we just want to make it tough every possession.

``It's hard when a guy like that is playing because he does so much, and you don't really notice his struggles as much as you would a guy who was one-dimensional. He could have a [bad shooting night] and still break down our defense and then Shaq [O'Neal] gets easy offensive rebounds. That still makes a difference. For us, we want to keep him out the lane and we don't want him to have any feel-good shots, dunks and stuff like that.''

Guarding Shaquille O'Neal will require a combination of Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, as well as Dale Davis and Kelvin Cato when necessary.