After tonight, Wade's got two rules. 1) Don't call him Flash. And 2) Don't ever, ever bring up tonight's game.

Erik Spoelstra’s voice was pleading, his tone desperate, and his team in a big hole. He stood in the locker room addressing his team, after witnessing the 61-46 first-half shellacking. The Celtics had outclassed the Heat in every facet of the game, and Spoelstra was forced to resort to begging. He begged his players to trust their teammates. He begged them to let go of their egos. He told them they would need each other in the second half. Begging, begging, begging, trying somehow, anyhow, to urge his team to a comeback.

The speech worked, kind of. Miami showed some fight after halftime, making Boston’s win a much closer 112-107. The Heat played better and they worked harder. They even gave Boston a (brief and small) scare. But they still didn’t play as a team. They relied on one man, Lebron James, to lead the comeback.

As it has all too often this season, the Heat’s offense resorted to one-on-one play. If there was some sort of synergy between the Three Amigos, I didn’t see it. Tonight was Lebron’s turn, the next game it might be Dwyane Wade’s. The next might even be Chris Bosh’s (Ha!). But the Miami Heat have yet to figure out how to capitalize on all the talent that relocated to South Beach this summer. They have yet to learn how to play as a team.

They need only study tapes of the Boston Celtics. When the Heat called isolation plays and pick-and-rolls, the Celtics swung five touch passes within seconds. When the Heat devolved into a one-man show, the Celtics continued to find the open man. In Boston, in Miami, it doesn’t matter – The Celtics are a team; the Heat just a bunch of individuals. There is plenty of time for the Heat to find chemistry, to gel. But the Celtics already have, for the past three years and some change. And when the Celtics’ five men play as one, and when they limit turnovers, and when they shoot like the ball has magnets for the rim, they are likely to put on a clinic.

The Celtics received contributions from everybody. Ray Allen was like the fire-bullet throwing character from Mario 3. At one point, after yet another three dropped through the nets, he simply smirked at Reggie Miller, as if to say, “Yeah, I’m going to pass your all-time three-point record sometime soon. What’s up?” Paul Pierce took advantage of his opportunities, scoring an efficient and silky smooth 25 points. Rajon Rondo continued to pile up assists like he is playing NBA 2k11. Glen Davis didn’t score well, but attacked the glass to make up for it. And that spin move he had around Haslem? Oh, so pretty. And that tip-in on the fast break? Lucky or not, that was unbelievable. I’m telling you, these guys were beautiful to watch.

Also? We no longer have to qualify Kevin Garnett’s performances with “he looked like his old self.” He IS his old self, or at least something damn close to it. His hands are everywhere. He attacks the glass. He makes a difference on both ends. Every night.

Even Nate Robinson got in on the act. Sure, I wanted to kill him after he entered the game then immediately fouled a jump-shooter and picked up a technical (even if the technical wasn’t earned). But after that? Robinson was great. Game-changing, even. He dished a couple sweet passes. Called upon the tear drop to end a Heat run and keep them at bay. Finished an explosive dervish to the hoop over Joel Anthony. He’s not out of my doghouse just yet, but he started working on it.

And Marquis Daniels? Your stats (2 points, 2 rebounds) say you did almost nothing. But that’s why I watch these games. To see your admirable job on Lebron. The way you cut him off on the baseline and took a charge. The way you denied him an inbounds pass in the full court and forced a time out. You were great, Marquis, and don’t let the box score tell you otherwise.

I could probably go on talking about individual performances all day, but that wasn’t what this win was about. It was about team. It was about five guys helping each other out, getting each other’s backs, making each other better. The Celtics are already a team, the Heat aren’t one yet, and that was the difference in this game.

No matter how great Lebron was, and he was special tonight, he couldn’t mask his team’s deficiencies. The Heat still have miles to travel to attain the level of chemistry the Celtics have now spent 319 games developing.

At one point in the game, the TNT camera focused on Pat Riley taking notes. I only hope he was taking notes on the Celtics. His Heat could certainly use those.

We all understand the type of physical pressure the Miami Heat’s Three Amigos are under.

Bookended in a starting lineup by Carlos Arroyo and Joel Anthony, the Three Amigos basically need to win three-on-five every time they step onto the court. Seriously. With apologies to Arroyo and Anthony (actually, I will not apologize), that’s the truth. Not only do the Heat’s two weakest links provide almost nothing offensively, but they’ve also both spent the first few weeks of the season like an Olympic city — getting torched all day.

So yes, the Three Amigos are under some immense physical pressure. But the emotional pressure is even greater. Never before has a team joined together with such hype. Never before have expectations been so high before a team even played a single game. If the Miami Heat don’t win a championship, they’re a failure. Really, even a championship won’t meet our expectations. We expect them to be nearly perfect.

So far, they haven’t been. Not even close. The Heat let Paul Millsap look like a mix between Superman and Reggie Miller, coughing up a 22-point lead in the process. They let Emeka Okafor look like he was back at UConn playing against Joe Schmo from Rutgers University, and fell to the Hornets while Okafor was in Huskies mode. They have allowed elite point guards to tally obscene assist totals, and they don’t seem to have any semblance of an end-of game plan. One night, Lebron James takes every crunch-time shot while Dwyane Wade watches with disinterest. The next, it’s Wade’s turn to dominate the ball while Lebron chills. There’s nothing about the Heat that screams, “Team!”, nothing about them that shows any synergy, any feeling that, “Hey, these guys make each other better as a team than they are on their own.”

It’s early still and most of the problems are curable, but the scrutiny is terrible. Listen to how Rich Levine described it.

 Sure, the Heat have played better since Opening Night, but still, they’re about as emotionally stable as a PMS-ing supermodel. For every step forward, at least in the eyes of the national media, they take seven steps back, and it’s got to be wearing on them. Erik Spoelstra can’t open the Internet without reading about the eventual Pat Riley takeover. Chris Bosh can’t check his Twitter feed without nearly 290K followers telling him he’s a fraud. LeBron James can’t gaze into the mirror and ask, “What should I do?” without the mirror yelling back, “How about taking over in crunch time of a big game, fool!?!”

We tend to think of superstars as something beyond human. But these guys have feelings too. And while I think Wade and Lebron are beyond the point where public perception can change their games, I think all the scrutiny has really affected Bosh. Really, how could it not? He had spent the rest of his career in Toronto, toiling in a minor market for shitty teams, receiving attention only when people discussed, “What about that Bosh guy, up in Canada? He’s actually pretty good, huh?”  

Now, he’s everyone’s goat. (And I definitely don’t mean G.O.A.T.) Jason Whitlock has already called for Bosh to be traded. Seven games into the season! And that was BEFORE Millsap’s superhuman 46-point explosion. Bosh has become the butt of everyone’s jokes, the reason some people now refer to the Heat’s “Big Three” as “Two and a Half Men.” At almost any point in the day,  my Twitter feed shows someone abusing Bosh’s game.

Bosh has already shown us that he’s not emotionally stable (in a basketball sense). He had a meeting with Lebron James to discuss how he feels hesitant. He told reporters, “We have a system but at the same time when the games happening so fast, sometimes I get lost. I don’t know whether to cut, whether to go, whether to get back. Playing with those talented two guys, it gets real fast.”

When the game’s happening so fast, sometimes I get lost? That sure as hell doesn’t sound like a superstar to me. It sounds more like someone struggling to get on the same page as his two vastly superior teammates.

Bosh is one hell of a talent. I won’t argue that. He’s long, skilled, athletic and has in the past proven himself capable of making plays against any defender. But one has to wonder if he’s built to withstand such enormous pressure.

(Note: I wrote about the Bosh issue and more Heat problems in a piece for SLAM Online. Check it.)

First, what in the world was Kevin Love thinking? He couldn’t have been serious with that shot attempt, right?

Second, Dwyane Wade took his opportunity to welcome Wesley Johnson to the NBA. “You might have been the most athletic player at Syracuse, son. But you aren’t playing against the Butler Bulldogs anymore.”

Third, neither of the two reasons above are the main reason I posted this clip. It was only blog-worthy because my main man Sebastian Telfair thought he could take a charge.

Almost, Bassy. Almost.

I didn’t know what to expect entering last night’s game.

I’d never seen the Miami Heat play a regular season game before (“no kidding, Jay”), so I didn’t know if they could possibly live up to the hype. I didn’t know whether the Three Amigos could mesh, and I wasn’t sure whether their bench was talented enough to make a difference. I didn’t know whether Lebron or Wade would be the leading man, and I didn’t know whether the second fiddle would take offense to being the second fiddle.

That was part of what made last night’s game so exciting. Nobody knows how good the Heat will be. People predicted 70 wins or 65 wins or however many wins, but nobody really knows. They have talent, obviously, but until that talent proves itself on the court anything remains possible. A lot of fans and analysts have already anointed the Heat Eastern Conference champions, but the element of unknown remains.

That’s why some tickets for last night’s game sold for $3,000. That’s why 500 media members were credentialed (more than a normal Finals game). That’s why I got texts this morning from friends I haven’t spoken to in months. The Celtics-Heat matchup was phenomenal in and of itself, but the Heat aren’t just a basketball team — they’re a mystery and a soap opera and a main attraction, all rolled into one. They’re something to fear, something to amaze, something to mesmerize you with wondrous possibilities.

And you know what else they are? 0-1.

After a raggedy performance that was almost saved by Lebron James’s heroics, the Heat were downed by a game Celtics team, 88-80. We still don’t know how good the Heat will be, and after last night’s uneven performance they still represent an unknown. But the Celtics? That old and familiar product, that overlooked afterthought of a former NBA champion? Their ways are known. Their ways are respected. And on a night that was supposed to usher in a new era of NBA basketball, a new superteam, the Boston Celtics stood in the way of an Eastern Conference torch-passing just by being themselves.

We can’t learn everything from last night’s game. It was only one game, only our first opportunity to see a Heat team that clearly hasn’t gelled, only our first chance to see a Celtics team trying to beat back age and keep the window of opportunity ajar. But we can take some things from the game, even if it was just a sloppy season opener played by two teams not yet fully formed. Read more »

The Morning Walkthrough is a set of links to Boston Celtics articles throughout the internet, designed to get your day started the right way.

Michael Wallace, ESPN – “After dominating the Heat early and then watching nearly all of his team’s 19-point lead slip away, Pierce sprinted back on defense, planted his feet and then absorbed the full brunt of James barreling all of his 6-foot-8 inch, 260-pound frame into the lane while going in for a layup. The collision sent Pierce tumbling. By the time he came to his senses, he was in the locker room being treated for a bruised back. Pierce, who would return to finish off the Heat, has a reputation for milking these dramatic moments. But this one was legit. The pain was real. The sacrifice was bold. Never mind that he was called for a blocking foul. Nothing else his team did Tuesday was more symbolic of how uniquely proud, insanely stubborn and breathtakingly defiant the Celtics were on Tuesday. Brick walls don’t even have the audacity to stand in front of James when he’s got a full head of steam. The message that possession sent throughout the building, and likely the league, was that the defending Eastern Conference champions won’t be backing down and handing anything over to the Heat. … New Heat. Same Celtics. And Boston is still stubborn enough to stand in the way.”

Steve Aschburner, NBA.com – “Let’s face it, if there was going to be any clash in this series in which Boston figured to have the Heat’s number, this one was it. The Celtics were at home, their old legs as fresh as they’ll be all season, with most of their pieces in place for more than three years now and determined not to get marginalized so soon by these insta-team upstarts. Did I type f-r-e-s-h? Since bringing together Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in July 2007, the Celtics are 72-10 in games played before Christmas. Miami, by contrast, was playing in a hostile environment, had been thrown together on the fly and remains all parts, no whole. Wade in particular still was hobbled by a hamstring injury that wiped out his preseason.”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “With all due respect to the fans who twice got the chant going, Miami is far more ‘Un-der-pre-pared’ than ‘O-ver-ra-ted.’ The Celtics simply did what they had to do to a team they really wanted to do it against. But last night is over. There is no better way to be reacquainted with reality than to wake up in Cleveland just hours after frolicking in the flashbulbs of perhaps the most anticipated NBA opener in history. ‘You always want to start off good,’ Shaquille O’Neal said after recording nine points and seven rebounds in 18 minutes. The Heat are good, too, despite what you saw for most of the opener. For all their talent, the limited game time together earns them a mulligan. For now, they have less cohesion than a Post-It note. ‘Oh, they’ll be so much better,’ C’s coach Doc Rivers said. ‘I don’t know if (Wade) was healthy or not. He did look explosive down the stretch. You don’t miss as much (time as Wade missed) and have rhythm. So yeah, they’ll be much better. . . . Hopefully we will (be) too.’”

Gary Dzen, Boston Globe – “LeBron was LeBron. Dwyane Wade was hurt. So who exactly is Chris Bosh? It’s way, way too early to pile on Bosh, whose 8 points (3 for 11) and 8 rebounds were underwhelming in Game 1 of the 2010 NBA season. It’s too early, and yet it makes more sense the more you read between the lines. Before the game, Ray Allen failed to mention Bosh when comparing these Miami Heat to the Celtics’ Big Three in 2007. In giving Paul Pierce a compliment, Shaquille O’Neal said the Celtics captain was every bit as deserving as “the other two over there” in the Miami locker room. The other two. … And without a superstar-level Bosh, just who are these Miami Heat? Plenty of teams have two star players. The Celtics potentially have four, though admittedly none at the current level of a James/Wade. Bosh’s development could impact the entire complexion of this NBA season.”

Rich Levine, CSNNE – “Ray Allen’s long-range shooting and Paul Pierce stepping up in the clutch were two other bright — if not entirely surprising — spots, but the night’s biggest positive has to be Rajon Rondo. Could any other guard in this league have a 2-for-9 shooting night yet still dominate a game the way Rondo did? Could any other point guard drop 17 assists without anyone noticing? Could any other player go an entire night with the defense playing five feet off of him yet still get to the basket when he needed to? Listening to Shaq and Jermaine O’Neal talk about Rondo after the game, it was like they just went through a religious experience. And you get the sense that might be a common theme as the year goes on. Rondo’s the fastest guy on the court, but he still sees the game in slow motion. He sees things other guys don’t. And that vision is only expanding each night. It’s going to be fun. And honestly, so was watching the Celtics bring the new Big Three back down to Earth; a lot of fun. But in looking at the big picture, I’ll get a lot more satisfaction in what the Celtics did, as opposed to what the Heat didn’t.”

Jessica Camerato, CSNNE – “In the box score, Shaquille O’Neal posted 9 points and 7 rebounds in 18 minutes. His teammates believe his contributions went beyond the stat sheet. ‘He’s huge for us,’ said Paul Pierce. ‘I think the numbers don’t really tell you how big he is for us because I remember at one point in the game going to Ray [Allen], I think it was the third quarter, we looked up and we were six minutes and in the bonus because Shaq drew about four or five fouls. We’re not a team that usually gets in the bonus that early, and that’s the presence that he brings. Hopefully it’s going to be like that all year long, when you get into a penalty and every foul from then on you go to the free-throw line. Just having him, he’s a great finisher . . . We want to take advantage of that night in and night out.  I think that’s where our greatest strength is, on the inside, and I’m glad to have him on our team.’ Kevin Garnett simply echoed, ‘What he said.’”

Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports – “There’s never been such a target in the NBA, and that includes the Jordan Bulls, the Showtime Lakers, no one. These Heat are the creation of the digital media age, the time of 24-7 viral assault on your senses. Bosh is right: It isn’t going away. So how do you deal with it all? Eventually, he isn’t going to like something Spoelstra tells him. Or one of Spoelstra’s assistants tells him. He won’t like the way he’s getting blame when the team’s struggling and Wade, the Miami icon, gets a pass. Something will spur him because it always does, and then everyone will find out again about LeBron James’ coping mechanisms. James never has been able to make fun of himself, and he needed a Nike campaign to do it for him. He’d better find a way to take a sobering look at his flaws, his failures and scrub away old stains with a new start on South Beach. What should he do? Take a look around, embrace Riley’s culture and understand that he needs the Heat as much as they need him. What should he do? No more running, LeBron. No more hiding. Finally, there’s someone to confront James. There’s someone who isn’t held hostage, who isn’t terrified of telling him, “No.” Opening night, a sluggish loss to the Celtics, and none of it mattered so much in late October. Cleveland is long gone, and so needs to be the perpetual adolescence of that cocoon. He’s under Old Man Riles’ watch now, and that could change everything for LeBron James. That could complete him.”

Bob Ryan, Boston Globe – “This was the most hyped and anticipated opening-night game in the league’s 65-year history. Everyone with an interest in the sport of professional basketball wanted to see the mighty Miami Heat, the team with the latest Big Three, the team that was going to re-glamorize the NBA, and never mind the fact we have a two-time defending champion located in the glamour capital of the US of A. But if the nation, the world, the uni verse, the galaxy, whatever, tuned in to see the mighty Miami Heat, they were re-introduced to the reality of the Boston Celtics, who have won a championship and have had two legitimate shots at others in the past three years, and who certainly look to be new and improved this season. The mighty Miami Heat could have been given a much easier opening-night foe than the Celtics’ squad that handed them an 88-80 loss to ensure they will not go 82-0.”

Steve Buckley, Boston Herald – “LeBron was asked about giving up the ball. Yep. The man who held his own version of “Judge Judy” to announce the name of his new employer was now being asked about giving up the ball. ‘It’s a feel-out process,’ he said. ‘When you have so many options, it’s something I’m not accustomed to, having that many threats out on the court at the same time. As the cohesiveness gets better, we’ve got to protect the balls more, but we’ll learn where the guys want the ball on the court.’ As his new teammate Dwyane Wade put it, ‘Sorry if everyone thought we were going to go 82-0. It just ain’t happening.’ And it was Wade who, commenting on the Garden crowd, said, ‘Well, the hostile atmosphere is fine. We’ve played in hostile atmospheres, environments, before, so that’s respect.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “The opponent and preceding hype considered, Allen admitted to having a flashback to last June. ‘I actually felt like I was in the playoffs – it was the same feeling and energy,’ said Allen. ‘With those guys coming in here the fans were ready. I could hear them when I walked into the building getting on the other team. I look forward to many nights like that.’ That feeling was contagious. ‘I said to Paul as we came out here, ‘Are we in the Finals already?’ ” said Kevin Garnett, who beyond taking Bosh out of the game had a rough time in the last 4:15, when he missed three shots and two free throws, and also committed the offensive foul that set up James’ drive. But Garnett’s late drain was offset in all sorts of ways. Rajon Rondo had 17 assists to Miami’s overall 15. Though Shaquille O’Neal did a nice job of pounding the Heat frontcourt into early foul trouble, Glen Davis was Rivers’ choice as a crunch-time center.”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “After the game, Pierce admitted he’s sore after spilling hard to the floor while picking up a blocking foul trying to deny James on a drive to the basket with 3:53 to play in the third quarter. He returned 1:17 into the fourth quarter, then connected on a pair of 3-pointers (while getting fouled in the act of shooting on another) to fuel his offensive outburst. ‘A little sore right now,’ said Pierce. ‘I knew when I got up and started walking around on the court, the back started to spasm a little bit. I had the chance to go to the back, took a few Advils, and put some heat on it and it loosened up a little bit. It was pretty good for the rest of the game, but it’s going to be a little sore [Tuesday] and [Wednesday].’”

Paul Flannery, WEEI – “Pierce has seen this play out so many times that he’s almost not surprised anymore when Allen takes, and makes, a huge 3-pointer with the game on the line. But take it for granted? No sir. ‘I’ve been a witness to the last three years, and he’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with,’ Pierce said. ‘It’s an honor just to be able to step on the court with him night in and night out. You’ve got a guy that can take that kind of pressure of you, it’s an amazing feeling.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPN Boston – “The Celtics utilized a handful of defenders on LeBron James Tuesday night, but it was Paul Pierce who proved most effective. Pierce was the defender on 14 of James’ 21 field goal attempts and he limited the Heat star to under 43 percent shooting overall. More importantly, Pierce forced five of James’ game-high eight turnovers, including three in the second half. Guarded by Pierce, James shot 42. 9 percent with five turnovers and 11 points scored (includes points via free throws). Defended by the rest of Boston’s roster James shot 57.1 percent with only three turnovers and 20 points scored.”

Dan Duggan, Boston Herald – “Last night, the Celtics coach wanted Davis to close out a tight game, taking the place of new acquisition Shaquille O’Neal. ‘With (Davis), he’s the fifth guy a lot because he knows a lot of our stuff,’ Rivers said. ‘(Rajon) Rondo ran three plays in the fourth quarter that we literally hadn’t run this year in a practice or anything . . . so it allowed us to keep playing. And Shaq will gradually get there, but we’ve got to make sure we milk Baby and tell him.’”

Got a tip? An article you think should be included? Send an email to jayking@celticstown.com or hit me up on Twitter @CelticsTown.

The most hyped opening night game ever had a playoff-like atmosphere and intensity, but only a preseason-level of basketball.

The Boston Celtics weathered a furious third quarter rally from LeBron James and survived 20 turnovers to win 88-80 against the Miami Heat Tuesday night at the TD Bank Garden.

Both teams were noticeably nervous during a sloppy, funky first quarter in which the Heat scored just nine points. To put that into perspective, Miami didn’t score fewer than 12 points in a quarter last season.

In the first quarter, Rajon Rondo alone looked like an NBA player, scoring one basket and assisting on the other six Celtics scores. Rondo scored just four points but engineered the Boston offense with 17 assists.

Offensively, Miami looked like they didn’t even have a playbook during the first half. James had five turnovers, Dwyane Wade added four himself, and Boston took a 45-30 lead into the half. Read more »