Nine first quarter points. Above all, that’s what really stuck out to me in the Heat’s 88 – 80 loss to the Boston Celtics last night to open up a highly anticipated season for the south Florida club. In fact, an eight point loss doesn’t even begin to describe how one-sided this affair seemed early on in the contest. The Heat were extremely unimpressive for most of the game and the only guy that looked like he actually came to play ball was LeBron James, who ended up with 31 points.
Was he nervous and accompanied by a stern demeanor? Yes. But you couldn’t tell by his performance as he hit his first jumpshot attempt. As the game wore on, I really forgot that he was now a member of the Heat. That’s because the Heat looked like James’ Cavs teams of yesteryear. He was left to score 30+ points while his teammates were innocent (or in this case, guilty) bystanders. Where was Wade (who finished with just 13 points)? Where was Bosh (who contributed a grand total of 8 points)? Nowhere to be found. Even though the other two members of the alleged “Big 3” were no-shows, the Heat only lost by eight and had it within four late in the 4th quarter. They woke up in the second half like you knew they would and made it somewhat competitive down the stretch. Therefore, there’s not really a cause for concern regarding the Heat at this point. Had they lost by 20, then I’d see it a bit differently, but despite a putrid 1st quarter, they actually made it close down the stretch.
In the grand scheme of things, it was just one game. That’s it. Just one. There are 81 more of these to go. But the team definitely has holes and their lack of a legit presence down low was exposed. And I like Carlos Arroyo. I think he’s serviceable NBA Point Guard, but reminiscent of Cleveland, LeBron played the point for most of the night.
If there was any doubt coming into last night’s tilt, allow me to be extremely clear: this is LeBron’s team. Period. When LeBron made his decision, he was criticized by people who thought that he would be Robin to Wade’s Batman. Not the case. Wade has said before that he wasn’t going to get caught up in the “who’s team is it?” debate. He said he wasn’t concerned with that. That’s what he has to say, but yeah right. He’s human so of course this realization bothers him. He’s a human that ran the city of Miami so much that it has been dubbed Wade County. He was the man in South Beach, and that has clearly been diminished to a degree.
For all of you NFL fans out there, this Heat loss reminded me of the Jets week 1 Monday night loss to Baltimore. The Jets were the NFL’s version of the Miami Heat during their off-season with all of the acquisitions they made and they stunk up the joint week 1 in front of the entire country. Now, they’re quite possibly the best team in the league, so let’s not get carried away just yet with this Heat loss by already thinking that it won’t work.
But the Heat have no bench. At least, not last night anyway. As the summer went on and they kept acquiring guys, I was bamboozled into thinking that they had a descent bench. They don’t. Mike Miller didn’t play because he was hurt but I’m still trying to convince myself that he’s as valuable as most people say he is.
Having said all of that, I do believe the Celtics are the better team as of right now and are one of the 3 best teams in the entire Association, so don’t expect the Heat to look this bad every night unless the schedule was changed and they’ll be playing their remaining 81 games against Boston. In all fairness to the Celtics however, they looked very good. Personally, I think Paul Pierce should let Rondo borrow his nickname because Rajon (along with his 17 assists from last night) is the truth. Not that Paul isn’t deserving of the title, but I’m just saying. Paul Pierce does more with less, more so than anybody I’ve seen in a long time. He’s proof positive that athleticism in basketball is greatly exaggerated. He can’t really jump, nor is he quick, but he can play the game well. But I really wish he would stop flopping. The Celtics pride themselves on defense, so what’s all the flopping about? Sorry, I digress.
Something that completely boggled my mind was the booing of LeBron during the starting lineups. Did I miss something? Was Boston in the running to get him this off-season? That made no sense to me. But that’s what this team will have to endure for their remaining 40 road games. Hopefully during those 40 road games, LeBron will actually get some help so that the team doesn’t look like the Miami Cavaliers.
If you’re looking for your everyday, predictable basketball talk, then go somewhere else, because Kevin Burke of The Kevin Burke Project brings provocative, thought provoking content about basketball as only he can. Kevin also hosts The Hoop Doctors weekly podcast show, which you can subscribe to for free on iTunes. Follow Kevin on Twitter and Facebook
