The opening night matchup which featured the Miami Heat at the Boston Celtics ended up being the most watched regular season NBA game in cable history. It was built up as if it were a highly anticipated heavyweight bout. When LeBron was still a member of the Cavs, it’s no secret that the Celtics didn’t like the Cavs and the Cavs didn’t like the Celtics. Before LeBron ever stepped one foot in a Miami Heat uniform, that hate that the Celtics had for the LeBron-led Cavs was somehow automatically transferred to the Miami Heat. Translation: the Celtics just don’t like LeBron, which makes every matchup between these two teams a must see.
After the first game where Miami struggled early but fought back to make it competitive down the stretch and eventually only losing by eight points, I didn’t think that there was much cause for concern for the Heat. Last night’s game started somewhat similar to the first matchup in that the Celtics opened up the game very solidly which was anchored by Ray Allen’s hot shooting. Ray was on fire, hitting his first seven 3-point attempts before finishing with 35 points. Ray is actually less than 100 3-pointers away from eclipsing Reggie Miller for the most all-time, which should happen later this year. At 35-years old and plenty left in the tank, I don’t think that record (whatever it ends up being) will ever be touched. At least not by any active player.
Paul Pierce had 25, KG added 16 and Rondo had another crazy assist night with 16. Reminiscent of the first game, the Celtics were clicking on all cylinders and led by as many as 20 points. They looked unstoppable for a good stretch of the game, but then it happened again. They allowed Miami to come back and make it competitive down the stretch, barely holding on for a 112 – 107 win. That again tells me that there’s still no cause for concern for Miami. What it also tells me is that the Celtics are clearly the better team right now and I even think they get into the heads of the Heat players.
At 5 – 4 (that record is skewed because they played Boston twice already and lost a game against Utah that never should’ve ended the way it did), there’s no way that the Heat will come anywhere near 70 wins (cough, Jeff Van Gundy). Aside from the Celtics being a better team that the Heat, Miami’s weaknesses were exposed once again. But what killed me was that the Heat players stood around and watched LeBron do his thing again, to the tune of 35 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, just narrowly missing his second triple double in as many games. Wade struggled in the first matchup and did so again last night as he finished with eight points on 2 – 12 shooting. He just simply can’t get it going against Boston this year for some reason.
Then you have Chris Bosh. I’ve stated repeatedly that I’m not nearly as enamored with his game as many others are and last night was exactly why. The Heat need Bosh to bang on the blocks but he is incapable of doing so. They need him to be a front court presence but he wants no parts of that. Instead, he’d rather face up 15 feet from the basket. In the first half, 6’1” Rajon Rondo had a head full of steam headed toward the basket to take off for one of his patented leaner dunk attempts. Standing right in front of the rim was $100M man, 6’11” Chris Bosh. Rather than make an effort to block Rondo’s dunk attempt, or at least foul him to send a message, Bosh just stood there and admired Rondo’s dunk. I was in absolute disbelief, but that is a microcosm of Bosh in my book. Sure, he averaged 20+ for many years in Toronto but he may be one of the softest players in the Association and on this Heat team who are completely void of any legit big man, they can ill-afford such play out of Bosh.
Not only do the Celtics not like LeBron, but as far as I’m concerned, they make it pretty obvious too. They foul him unlike they foul anybody else. I’m not saying there’s a problem with that, it’s just merely an observation. Both Shaq (who should not have been called for that flagrant foul) and Glen Davis gave LeBron good, hard fouls and then had the look on their face that said “if you come back, I’ll do it again.” Paul Pierce also routinely gives a sarcastic look whenever a called is made in LeBron’s favor. But just image what could’ve been if Wade showed a pulse and averaged anywhere near his team leading 26ppg average. Such wasn’t the case and the Heat looked like the Miami Cavaliers again – a team that only shows up against Boston.
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
