I’m sure most of you saw the Boston Celtics run all over the Clevela— I mean, Miami Heat on Tuesday night, right? Good, me too.
I sat at my desk in the office watching the game over the top of my computer screen, patiently waiting for the Heat to make a run and stretch out a double-digit lead. That run never came, and Boston started the highly anticipated 2010 season with a deceptively dominant 88-80 win over Miami.
Diagnosing the Heat’s inconsistencies on offense isn’t in my job description, but I, like rest of the sporting world, expected to see a little more fluidity from a team that some have pegged as a 70-win team this season.
Dwyane Wade’s preseason absence was noticeable in his 37 minutes of playing time, though his tweaked hamstring didn’t seem to hinder his performance. His 4-of-16 shooting night, however, was a bit more of a concern. Wade clearly has plenty of catching up to both physically and mentally in preparing to play with an entirely different team.
The second slice of trifecta pie, Chris Bosh, accomplished basically what I had expected early in the season. But his eight-point and eight-rebound showing could have been much sharper for someone who inked an eight-figure salary this offseason. Like Wade, Bosh felt the cold shooting woes, going 3-of-11 from the field with just two free throw attempts.
Bosh is a 79 percent career free-throw shooter and will need to make himself a regular at the charity stripe this season as Miami’s go-to big man. Kevin Garnett’s defensive intensity won’t be matched every game throughout the year, and if Bosh is able to win half the battles against the centers and power forwards in the Eastern Conference, he’ll have a legitimate shot at returning for another all-star game. He was, after all, a regular in Toronto. But after this offseason that sure feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?
For LeBron James, Tuesday’s performance was nothing out of the ordinary for the NBA’s reigning MVP. His 31 points on 10-of-21 shooting, including 50 percent from behind the three-point line, is what we’ve come to expect from James. But at times, and I know we can all agree on this, the Heat looked a lot like the LeBr— I mean the Cavaliers, of old. Heavily reliant on James ability to score at will, Miami looked stagnant in its unveiling.
James and Wade were the first to admit in the post-game press conference that the early going will be a feeling-out process. From the looks of it, the big three have yet to delve into that process. It is, I remind you, still October and a long season is still ahead.
We know Miami is going to make the playoffs; James has taken far less talent all the way to the NBA Finals (see game five of the eastern conference finals in Detroit three years ago). But that’s not what this year was supposed to be about.
I’ve hinted a couple times at the Heat looking an awful lot like the LeBrons we’ve watched in Cleveland for the past seven years — subtle, I know. But the similarities were still there, and it made me scratch my head a bit.
Maybe I was naïve in thinking Miami would coast to an easy season-opening win in the Boston Garden. From top to bottom the Celtics are deeper than the Heat, and it showed. LeBron playing 43 minutes (his career average is 40.3) on opening night left me feeling a bit uneasy, but aside from Wade and Bosh — as if that’s not enough — James doesn’t have a lot of help offensively. Only James and Wade finished with more than eight points, yet the big three accounted for 15 of Miami’s 17 turnovers. Ouch.
What more is there to say? This team has been sliced and diced for months leading up to Tuesday’s season-opener, and now the road to the NBA Finals appears to be more of a rigorous uphill battle than a stroll in the sand on South Beach.
[email protected]