Opening night of the 2010-11 NBA season saw the newly revamped Miami Heat travel to Boston to take on an aging Celtics squad. It's no secret- the Heat are going to be virutally unstoppable. Vegas has set the Over/Under line on wins at 65 1/2. Jeff Van Gundy says they are going to win 74. Most people are handing them the title.
The beautiful thing about sports, however, is that things aren't always what they seem. Now I'm not going to sit here and proclaim that the Heat won't win 60 games after one miserable night, but last night's game should raise a few eyebrows. Boston held the Heat to 9 1st quarter points, 21 2nd 2nd quarter points and 80 points overall. Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh combined to shoot 7-27. Lebron, while quietly getting 31 points turned the ball over 8 times.
Part of me wants to buy into the excuses -you know, how Dwayne Wade played 3 minutes with Bosh and Lebron in the offseason or how the team is not fully jelled yet. Those seem very plausible. But what if they are just excuses? What if Boston outplayed them? What if Chris Bosh is really overrated? What if they have no one to guard Rondo (who had 17 assists)? What if they are not as good as everyone thinks?
One game isn't enough to decide the fate of this team. I think of the questions raised above, the answers lie somewhere in the middle. The Heat aren't that bad. In fact, they are really good (but not 70 win good). A problem they will see in the early season is that basketball really is a game of chemistry. Alpha-dogs are not supposed to play on the same side, so things will be a bit off even if they are perfectly comfortable deferring to teammates. Until Wade gets his feet under him and the offense is running without any hiccups, the Heat's defense will need to carry them. Unfortunately on opening night, they went against a better defensive team. And they went against a team with a chip on it's shoulder. Garnett, Allen and Pierce are pissed because critics are writing them off as being too old. Rondo is pissed because some critics think Rose is better. And Shaq, who I think looked great last night, is in shape and pissed because he is no longer the center of attention. The Celtics fans were pissed because, well, they were playing the Heat. Add these ingredients together and last night was the perfect storm.
Whether the Celtics can remain healthy will go a long way in determining whether they are championship contenders. I have no doubt that the Heat will rebound to win 60 games - talent always rises to the top - but on any given day, I think they will be susceptible to what Boston can throw at them. The problem may be that to beat the Heat, you need more than just one good day.
I am very excited to see where this all goes.
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