• Previous game coverage:
  • Remembering the Celtics: A season preview
  • The Morning Walkthrough: In the Air Tonight
  • Semih Erden, Avery Bradley, Kendrick Perkins inactive
  • In strange way, Celtics aid Heat

Game Preview:

There was one quote I read (or heard, I forget which) that said exactly what I felt about tonight’s Celtics-Heat game. I forget where I read (or heard) it, but the quote went something like this:

“Tonight’s game is a lot like the opening kickoff in a football game. Neither team will win a championship tonight. Neither team will win the Eastern Conference. Neither team will even make the playoffs. But one team will set a tone.”

With that word from the wise, I now proceed to my three game keys.

1. Turnovers – It’s simple. If the Celtics take care of the ball, they keep Lebron, Wade and Bosh away from the open court. Those three are potent enough when defenses are set up. When they’re in the open court, fuhgeddaboudit. Unfortunately, the Celtics tend to cough the ball up early and often.

2. Points in the point – Whenever you play against a team that starts Joel Anthony, your main point of emphasis should always be this: GO DOWN LOW! The Celtics signed a boat load of quality big men this summer, with eyes toward matchups just like tonight’s. And if you thought Shaq, Big Baby and Kevin Garnett should be the only ones scoring in the paint, think again: Rondo should be able to drive by Carlos Arroyo like he’s wearing cement shoes.

3. Three-point shooting – If the Heat hit a lot of threes, they’re going to be tough to beat. Why? Because that would probably mean that Eddie House, James Jones and Carlos Arroyo are making an impact, and they shouldn’t. Limiting Lebron, Wade and Bosh is tough enough (read: next to impossible). Limiting the role players is a must.

Enjoy the game tonight, folks. I know I will. Basketball is back. Finally.

In a weird way, the Celtics lend a helping hand to their most talented Eastern Conference opponents. In a weird way, the Celtics offer the Miami Heat pointers. In a weird way, they tutor their rivals.

I’m not saying they do it overtly. Paul Pierce doesn’t phone Lebron James and tell him how to execute Pierce’s famed stepback jumper. Ray Allen isn’t going to email Dwyane Wade the proper jumpshot form. Rajon Rondo won’t sit down with Carlos Arroyo and explain how to run an offense. Kevin Garnett doesn’t text Chris Bosh the meaning of the word “defense.” And I can’t imagine Shaq taking Joel Anthony under his wing to teach him how to put the ball in the basket.

But the Celtics laid the blueprint for how a three-pronged group of All-Stars can join together and, in their first season, win a championship. They showed that chemistry can be formed instantly, that egos can be shoved aside for a team’s good. That a team doesn’t necessarily need a single go-to guy down the stretch, that three options (and now, four) can be even more successful. They showed that the offense will take care of itself, and that defense is where teams win games. In short, the Celtics have spent three years demonstrating everything the Heat need to prove.

Chris Bosh told NBA.com’s David Aldridge that the Heat already look to the Celtics for inspiration.

“A lot of people’s concerns is, ‘is the ball big enough?,’ ” Bosh said. ” ‘Are there gonna be enough shots for everybody?’ To be quite frank, I remember ’07, and people were asking the same thing about the Celtics their first year (with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce), and they came out and showed people how to really play team basketball, and how superstars can come together for the team.

“We’re gonna have to do that same thing … we’re gonna have to set screens for each other, have each other’s back on defense. It’s so many other parts of the game where we have to play well and sacrifice for each other, other than offense.”

A lot of people, including the Celtics’ Big Three, point out that the Heat’s Three Amigos are in different points of their careers than Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were in 2007. James, Wade and Bosh are younger and haven’t finished compiling individual accolades. They are accustomed to setting the world on fire with statistics, not passing up open shots to get talented teammates involved. They have each spent their careers accomplishing feats and winning games mostly by themselves. Playing with such a stacked deck will be different, new, and perhaps overwhelming at times. But if used correctly, that stacked deck is an advantage against any team in the league.

Erik Spoelstra understands that winning games will come down to far more than talent, and told as much to the Miami Herald.

“A lot of the things that we want to stress this year have nothing to do with X’s and O’s and strategy, but it’s how we manage adversity and how we deal with tough times, how we stick together as a family and how we sacrifice for each other and how we hold each other accountable,” Spoelstra said. “All those things immediately get tested when you’re on the road, and especially in a tough environment like Boston.”

That sounds a lot like Ubuntu, right?

If the Heat want to learn how to successfully fuse their stable of stars, they should peer across the court tonight. And then they should take notes.

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

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “They each have their quirks. Paul Pierce might be the cockiest player to ever wear a headband. He’d trash talk a nun. He’s never seen a last-second shot he didn’t want to take. Ray Allen has know-it-all tendencies. ‘Wikipedia,’ as Kevin Garnett calls him. Garnett, of course, is intense beyond measure. Fluent in all languages profane. On the court, there are different levels of maintenance for the Celtics’ Big Three. Coach Doc Rivers will tell you that Pierce and Allen are ‘thirsty scorers,’ their appetites for the ball constantly needing to be fed. Garnett, on the other hand, can be painfully unselfish, to the extent that young point guard Rajon Rondo will yell at him to ‘shoot the damn ball!’ But they knew each other’s peculiarities when they signed up three years ago. Since that June 2007 news conference when the three stars first aligned, they’ve made it work.” Read more »

Kendrick Perkins's happy face. And sad face. And everything in between face.

1. Kendrick Perkins targets early February for his return. “To me, I feel like I need about a month-and-a-half [to be playoff-ready],” he said.
2. Paul Pierce was rated #19 in Slam Online’s player rankings. This sentence from the column had me dying laughing: “It’s also entirely possible Chris Bosh still has to fit the hotel room bed with rubber sheets the night before playing against Kevin Garnett.”
3. GMs give Boston a 100% chance to win the Atlantic, an 18.5% chance to win the East, and a 3.7% chance to win a championship. They say Ray Allen is the league’s purest shooter and Rajon Rondo the best on-the-ball perimeter defender and best defender in the passing lanes. Actually, the entire Celtics team dominated the defensive rankings. Also, more votes.
4. John from Red’s Army strongly believes Shaq should come off the bench. I happen to agree, for this reason: Shaq, against second string defenses, can still get buckets.
5. Brian Scalabrine on why Tom Thibodeau wanted him in Chicago: “He knows that he can count on me.”
6. Kobe Bryant’s the reason we had a recession.
7. If Andrew Bynum has one more major knee surgery, his minutes will likely be limited for the rest of his career.
8. Jersey advertising has the potential to save the NBA from a lockout. Seriously. English Premier League soccer teams made $155 million off jersey advertising last season. My thoughts? Why the hell not? The basketball will be the same, even if the Boston Celtics become the Armani Jeans Celtics. On second thought… the Armani Jeans Celtics?
9. Adrian Wojnarowski on the passing of the torch in Miami: “Opening night of the preseason, Wade was pushed to the side and everyone saw they could leave him the captain, the spokesman, the last man introduced to the laser light show. They could leave everything in place for Dwyane Wade except for the fact that the Miami Heat no longer belong to him. A force of nature showed on the shores of Biscayne Bay, grabbed the ball and never looked back. Maybe this is still D-Wade’s city and franchise, but this is LeBron James’ team now. King James doesn’t do deferential.”
10. I’m pretty sure I could score 10 points per game in the NBA if I had low-post lessons from Hakeem Olajuwon. Hakeem’s forgotten more post moves than most players ever learn. Which makes the thought of him teaching Dwight Howard positively frightening.

Shaq spoke with the Orlando Sentinel about the Miami Heat, Dwight Howard, and NBA lockout and the reason he talks so much crap. (“Marketing,” he explained. “”I know what I’m doing when it comes to selling out games.”)

Here’s what Shaq said about the Heat:

Do you feel like Miami is going to run the Eastern Conference or is all the talk hype?

“Everybody is always excited about youth, but in the last 11 years I don’t see a youthful team winning the championship. But they got a great backcourt in LeBron and D-Wade, probably one of the most talented, historical backcourts ever.”

Shaq’s right about experience winning championships. But let’s not talk about the Heat like they’re all rookies. Lebron James is a two-time defending MVP, Dwyane Wade has a Finals MVP trophy, and Chris Bosh, well, he works hard. Udonis Haslem, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Juwan Howard, Mike Miller and Eddie House are all OG’s. I mean, it’s not like these guys are still walking around with pacifiers in their mouths, wearing diapers.

I’m afraid of the Heat, I’m willing to admit it. But I’ve got faith in my Celtics.

Before you watch the NBA’s top ten dunks from 2009-2010, I just want to apologize to Glen Davis for posting this video. You’ll see why when you watch, but I’ll give you a three-word hint: Andrew Bogut, devastation.

If you ask me, and I may be the only one who thinks this way, Amare Stoudemire’s dunk on Anthony Tolliver is overrated. Stoudemire’s supposed to dunk on Tolliver. Meanwhile, 6’4″ Dwyane Wade dunked on 6’11″ Anderson Varejao, Varejao’s parents, his grandparents, his un-born grandchildren, and all his ancestors, all at the same time. I give the mythical dunk of the year title to Wade, and Derrick Rose’s two-hand cock-back comes in second. Vote for your favorite dunks here.

Click the jump for the Celtics’ top dunk of the season. Read more »