I watched the entire Heat-Celtics game, and what a game it was. While one doesn’t want to take too much out of one game, I think we can glean this:
- The Miami Heat will win a lot of basketball games: Dwayne Wade is still healing his hamstring, their offense was “atrocious” in the first half (and that’s their coach’s word, not mine), yet they still turned a 15-point halftime deficit into a 3-point game with about minute to go – against the Eastern Conference Champions who actually added to their roster (more on that later). Wade will get healthy; and things like the first quarter will be few and far between. Looking ahead, I can think of only three teams (out of 29) who would consistently give Miami a game. Boston happens to be one of them; the other two are Orlando and the Lakers.
- The Heat are vulnerable to size: Boston’s major addition was Shaquille O’Neal. Now, Shaq is one of three NBA players who are older than I am, and he only played 18 minutes. Yet he had nine points (and would have had 14 if he made his free throws) and seven rebounds. Miami had no answer for him before resorting to tried-but-ture Hack-a-Shaq. The Celtics revealed how to beat Miami – use the big man. The Lakers have Kobe, but they also have Pau Gasol. Orlando has Dwight Howard. They could give the Heat fits.
- Boston looks very good – and will again in the playoffs, but odds are the regular season will mean as little to them this year as it did last year. This game showed us they can get ready for the big games, but with their, um “experience,” they’ll need to soft-pedal the small ones. Look for them to be the 4th seed in the playoffs, then starting a run that could get them back to the Finals
All in all, for the East, it should be the most interesting season since Jordan’s 2nd retirement.
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