Today’s the biggest game of the year, to date.

Never mind what Lebron James said about the Heat having no true rivals. Never mind that playing Los Angeles was a rematch of The Series That Must Not Be Named. Never mind that Orlando felt like such an important contest, with elbows and shoves being handed out like free samples. It’s getting to be that time of year when the standings count. The Celtics are now 1/2 game behind Miami for the East’s number one seed, a seed that comes with homecourt advantage. A win today would put Boston back in the lead, and would also give them something that could come in handy down the road — a tiebreaker, in case the two teams finish the regular season with identical records.

Beyond that, Boston has a chance to crane kick Miami’s psyche. Beating them once was nice. But it was Miami’s first game together. Beating them twice was nicer. But it was just one game. Beating them a third time — without all three backup centers, and without Marquis Daniels, and without Delonte West — would have to make Miami wonder: “Can we beat these guys?” Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern.

Lebron James hardly knows what it feels like to win in Boston. In the Big Three era, Lebron has played in Boston 13 times. He’s won once. It’s not all Lebron’s fault. He averages more than 31 points per game against Boston, the most any opponent has ever averaged against Boston. But it has to be somewhere in the back of his self-loving mind: “What do I have to do to take these guys down?”

Miami obviously has talent, oodles of it. Only two questions surround Miami this season:1) Is the supporting cast — what with Mario Chalmers and Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the starting lineup — enough? And 2) Can the Heat execute in crunch-time, playoff-type situations? The answers to both questions, in meetings one and two with Boston, were no. But the Heat feel like times have changed. (Miami Herald)

“We were a totally different team the last two times we played the Celtics,” Heat forward LeBron James said. “Those guys were just too much for us at the time – very overwhelming for us at the time – and we’ve come a long way. We just need to show what we’ve [been] doing as of late and take it to the game on Sunday.”

But the Heat aren’t going to measure themselves against any other teams. They’re going to measure themselves against Boston, because the Eastern Conference goes through Boston. If, after becoming “a totally different team,” Miami’s still overwhelmed by a shorthanded Celtics squad, the Heat’s eight straight wins heading into today’s matchup hardly matter.

Boston tests opponents in ways no other team does. The Celtics rattle you. They play team basketball, and they throw elbows, and they make the extra pass, and they refuse to back down no matter what happens. They talk a lot of junk, and they stand their ground, and they have a handful of future Hall of Famers surrounded by a few solid role players, coached by the perfect (for their outfit) manager. They won’t ever give you a game. They make you rip it from their hands, as they clutch onto it with a grip of death.

“Now the target is on our back,” said Erik Spoelstra of today’s matchup, because his team sits in first place in the Eastern Conference standings. But let’s be serious, Erik. The Celtics know they can beat Miami. The target’s in the same place it has been all season, on the backs of the defending Eastern Conference champions.

More accurately, there are two targets. Both teams need today’s win, badly. The Celtics, to snap a brief losing skid, get back on track, and regain first place. The Heat, to validate what they consider improvement. There are very few regular season games that actually hold long-term significance. Enjoy today.

Mr. Scowls.

Kendrick Perkins has turned down a contract extension offer from the Boston Celtics, according to the Boston Herald.

I assume the offer — a deal reportedly worth slightly less than $30 million over four years — made Perkins scowl. Perkins and his agent, Arn Tellem, reportedly prefer to wait until Perk hits free agency to negotiate his new deal. Which makes sense: in a league where Brendan Haywood commands $55 million (mostly to pick splinters out of his butt while backing up Tyson Chandler), Perk will likely receive a better deal than the one he turned down. Even with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement looming, Perk can look forward to cashing in during the free agency period.

The Miami Heat will be one team jockeying for Perk’s services, according to Marc Spears. But the Heat, with more than $62 million guaranteed next year, will likely be unable to offer Perk anything greater than a mid-level exception (though the new CBA could change everything). And I don’t know about you, but I can’t see Perk leaving Boston for a lower offer.

Warning: I’m covering the Celtics-Magic game from the Garden today for SLAM, so I don’t know how much I’ll post to the blog.

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? The Cleveland Cavaliers, and Lebron James, used to have a policy — no excuses.

“We’re a no excuses team,” echoed both Lebron James and Mike Brown, after a late (and pretty obviously intentional) Bruce Bowen foul went uncalled in the 2007 NBA Finals. Which brings me to the irony. Since then, there has always been an excuse waiting to escort James away from failure. His latest excuse invokes the Boston Celtics, but, first, a history of LeExcuses.

Brown’s offensive sets were never good enough. Neither was Lebron’s supporting cast. Lebron’s elbow hurt so bad. A teammate had sexual relations with Lebron’s mother. Lebron didn’t actually know what contraction meant. The karma tweet didn’t even consist of his own thoughts. And did I tell you about that Cleveland supporting cast? You try winning with those bums.

There aren’t many more excuses to go around. James has a coach who he, all shoulder bumps aside, finally respects. Don’t want to take my word for it? Listen to Bill Reiter, who has covered Miami for Fox Sports all season long. Hell, listen to Lebron himself: “Me and Spo are still learning each other,” LeBron said after playing OKC. “It’s not like me and Spo have been (together a long time). We’re still learning each other. I’m going to continue to trust Spo. He’s our coach and he’s going to continue to trust me.” And Reiter’s take on Lebron’s quote: “The key here isn’t that LeBron said these words – it’s that he appeared to mean them.”

The supporting cast, too, leaves little to be desired. I mean, sure, I bet Lebron wishes he could see a little less of Mario Chalmers, Joel Anthony and Carlos Arroyo. But when Lebron James teams with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the supporting cast can’t be blamed. It can’t. The Heat have three of the top ten (or, in Bosh’s case, perhaps 15) players in the NBA, and a few pieces (read: Mike Miller, James Jones, and maybe Zydrunas Ilgauskas) who aren’t at all half bad. And Udonis Haslem should return later this season to add another impressive role player. Nobody would argue Miami’s the NBA’s deepest team, but the talent is there.

As for knick-knack injuries? Nobody’s going to fall for the elbow trick twice. Same goes for the whole “mother” thing. I’m not even trying to say the accusations were false. Nor am I trying to say they were true. I’m just saying nobody’s going to fall for it twice, true or not.

Some of the excuses weren’t even made by Lebron himself. Lebron stood in Brown’s corner, even when the media blamed him for Cleveland’s troubles. Lebron never, to my knowledge, verbally disparaged his supporting cast in Cleveland (although leaving for Miami was a sure sign of where Lebron stood on the issue). We — the media, and the fans — enabled Lebron to avoid accountability, to play six years in Cleveland while hardly ever taking fault for a loss, and we hardly ever mentioned, “Shit, maybe it’s Lebron’s fault this isn’t working.” In the seventh year, after Lebron’s epic disappearance against Boston in Game 5, we’d finally had enough. That loss was Lebron’s fault, no matter how that damn elbow felt, no matter how many times Delonte West had pleased Lebron’s mother.

As scarce as excuses seem to be nowadays, Lebron isn’t done with them. He doesn’t have many left, so he created a new one. The Heat can’t possibly have Boston’s chemistry, said Lebron yesterday, because they haven’t had enough time together. (ESPN)

“We’re way behind those guys,” LeBron James said following the Heat’s practice on Wednesday. “Just look at the number of games played, the number of playoff series those guys have had. We’re only a few months in together — 40-something-plus games. I’ve seen the statistics. Boston has like 250-plus games played together. We’re way behind those teams.”

When taken alone, the quote isn’t that harmful. Actually, it makes all kinds of sense. Miami IS only 40-something games into its new experiment. Boston DOES have great chemistry, which IS aided by the amount of games the C’s have played together.

But being an obsessive follower of Boston’s Big Three, I can tell you they never made excuses about chemistry. They saw the Detroit Pistons and never thought, “Damn, those guys have more chemistry than we do. We’re way behind that team.” They thought, “We’ll do whatever it takes to get our chemistry to that level. Then, we’ll kick their asses.” The Big Three Celtics never once complained about chemistry, or how quickly they had to develop it. Never once. They were all working toward a common goal, they were all infected by Ubuntu, and chemistry developed quickly and naturally. And, though the bond was natural and unforced, the Celtics worked all season long to strengthen it. No excuses, no complaints.

The Celtics made it work. Ray Allen sacrificed so much of his individual game. Paul Pierce stopped being a ball stopper, and started facilitating movement. He took fewer shots, but he took better ones. And Kevin Garnett? He was always unselfish, but he took his charitable attitude to another level. Chemistry isn’t just about liking your teammates on and off the court. It’s about making sacrifices to maximize the talent that steps on the floor each night.

Which brings us back to the Heat. They could very well win an NBA championship this season. They have two of the NBA’s top five players, and another in the top fifteen. They’re a very good, potentially great team. But Lebron’s right: they don’t have terrific on-court chemistry yet, and, maybe more importantly, they don’t seem like they’re willing to make all the necessary sacrifices. Lebron still wants to launch the occasional ill-advised fallaway jumper, and both Wade and Lebron fall into one-on-one play too often. Isolations can work, because the two players are such talents. But solo tangents of individual greatness fail to maximize Miami’s production.

So Lebron, you’re right. Your team lags behind Boston in terms of chemistry. But that doesn’t count as an excuse. It’s on you and your teammates to get it right by season’s end. If not, the failure’s on your team, and nobody or nothing else. Accountability started the day you took your talents to South Beach, Lebron, and it should have started far sooner.

Dwyane Wade does not believe the Heat need to play together like the Boston Celtics do. Or something like that.

“We’ve proven sometimes it can be a lot of him and a lot of me,” Wade said of the Heat’s unique either-or, one-two perimeter punch with himself and James. “That’s the good problem that we have around here. That’s the reason we’re all playing together. It’s about figuring out which one.

“We’re not the Boston Celtics. We’re not these kinds of teams that need to play together. We have guys that have the individual talent, and sometimes the individual talent, one-on-one ability is going to take over. Boston has more of guys that have great individual talent, but they feed off each other. We’re a new team and we’re still figuring it out.”

Normally, I’d take the high road and say, “See? This mentality is why the Heat won’t get past the Boston Celtics in the East. This is why Lebron James still hasn’t won a title in his career. This is why Dwyane Wade needed Shaq — and a watered-down NBA — to win his one ring.”

But I don’t care if the Heat don’t play together perfectly. I don’t care if they sometimes resemble a team of mismatched parts. I don’t care if they don’t have a single NBA-caliber point guard or center. This team scares the hell out of me, and in a seven-game series I can’t say the Celtics have an edge. It was hard enough to take down Lebron or Wade on their own. Now they’re a tag team that comes at you from both ends of the court.

When Udonis Haslem returns and if Mike Miller finds his groove, these Heat will become even more dangerous. And you know what’s even more fearful? This — a year when the Heat still lead the NBA in point differential even while struggling through injuries and an identity crisis — is actually the year to beat them. Because with every year that passes, the Heat will become better at playing together. And every year from now on, they’ll add a draft pick and a mid-level exception player to bolster their depth and make the talent around James and Wade deep and scary. Hell, they might even add Nene before the trading deadline, a move that would bring me (and most of the NBA) to tears.

That said, I hope the Heat continue to think “we’re not these kinds of teams that need to play together.” Because, as much talent as the Heat have, it still takes a full unit to dispatch the Boston Celtics. They’re pretty good.

(H/T @MrTrpleDouble10)

I was impressed by Cleveland’s hatred. That city loathes Lebron James. In the words of Susan from Survivor: if Lebron was sitting there dying of thirst, Cleveland would let the vultures take him. The city showered him with boos, chants, and homemade posters, all designed to make Lebron feel some sort of pain.

The Cavs, on the other hand? I wasn’t so impressed with them. Not in the least. They joked with Lebron, smiled as he stood in front of their bench jawing. They showed no competitive fire, no spine. If I had to choose one word to describe the Cavs last night, it would rhyme with wussies. Lebron jetted in for fast break layups, and nobody put him on his ass. He mocked the bench and nobody, save for an assistant coach, told him to shove it.

Why should the players want to beat Lebron as badly as the fans did, you ask? Because when he left, he effectively told his former supporting cast they weren’t good enough. He couldn’t win with those chumps, is what Lebron’s departure meant. He wanted to go elsewhere, where he could surround himself with talented teammates, where he could finally win his first title. Lebron leaving Cleveland was a direct slap in his former teammates’ faces. He thought it was their fault he went ringless during his first seven seasons.

THAT’S why the players should resent Lebron, or at least want to beat his ass on the court. Not because he made The Decision such a public debacle. Not because he showed no remorse to the city that had loved him for so long. Not just because he left. But because when he left, he showed no respect to the Cavaliers. “I feel like it’s going to give me the best opportunity to win,” LeBron said after The Decision. He added, “I want to be able to win championships. And I feel like I can compete down there.”

In other words, “Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao, Antawn Jamison and Anderson Varejao suck.”

Still, the Cavs showed no spine. Chris Webber called them “as soft as wet toilet paper.” Then he added, “in a puddle.”

Meanwhile, Lebron used the crowd’s hatred as fuel. Finally, in this season where Lebron is the most despised man in basketball, he embraced the role of villain.

I wrote my latest piece for SLAM Online on Lebron’s vindictive spirit in last night’s game.

The only problem was, LeBron James didn’t stop tormenting Clevelanders in July. He came back at their throats last night, like he, not they, had been wronged. There was a different bounce in his step, a bounce Cleveland had seen on occasion. No taunts were going to distract LeBron James in this game. He was a man with a singular mission, to take the crowd’s hatred and silence it. All season long, we have wondered how the public’s disdain would change LeBron James. Would he use it as fuel, or would it affect him more negatively? On this night, clearly galvanized by his role as enemy, LeBron played the villain perfectly. By the end of the third quarter, when LeBron had already set a season high with 38 points, the crowd’s jeers — so damning and violent at the game’s start — had become nothing more than a form of entertainment to make a blowout more exciting. [...]

These Miami Heat have all too often played uneven, uninspired basketball. But if LeBron James can be such a vindictive S.O.B. each night, the toughest, most determined man in the gym will also be its most devastating talent. He will continue to quiet crowds and leave haters defeated, and he will accomplish all that with a knowing smile on his face.

Click here to read the rest of my piece.

Not that everything coaches say is 100% truthful, but Doc Rivers shot down the recurring Miami Heat rumor today on WEEI.

Maybe you’ve heard by now, but the way some stories have been running, it sounds like Pat Riley wants Spoelstra to hold up until next year and then have Doc Rivers coach the Heat next season. Any thoughts about that?

No, I really don’t have any thoughts about that. As far as I’m concerned, I’m a Celtic and I plan on being that for a long time, as long as I’m coaching.

I would be surprised if Rivers ever took the Miami job. Family is dear to him, but, as Dan Duggan noted on Twitter, even Miami is 200 miles away from Doc’s home, in Orlando. If you told me Rivers is going to take a year off next year, I’d believe you. But if you told me he was going to take his talents to South Beach, I’d probably call you a liar straight to your face. As much as Rivers loves his family, he also enjoys coaching this crew in Boston. He appreciates coaching a group of players that cares about nothing besides winning, as illustrated by his quote yesterday:

“I have a great group, I have a veteran group that don’t play for themselves,” Rivers told CSNNE. “That allows us as a group — not just me, but [assistant coach Lawrence Frank] and everybody — to coach them. That allows us to win.”

Shortly after saying “I’m a Celtic and I plan on being that for a long time,” Rivers admitted he still hasn’t decided whether to return next season.

I know you probably haven’t decided about next year yet, but do you think you’re going to wait until the 11th hour again? Will we spend six months speculating on what Doc’s going to do next season?

Well I hope not, but I don’t know. I mean, honestly, I can tell you I’ve given it zero thought. I was asked about it a couple of times yesterday, because I don’t know where this thing came from. Other than that, I don’t think about it much at all. Danny and I are as close as you can be, and so I just don’t even think about it. I’m just doing my job, and I’m going to get through my job.

I’m going to make a prediction, based solely on my own feelings: Rivers will coach in Boston again next year, at least. Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett (along with many other Celtics) finish their contracts after next season, and I imagine Doc will re-visit his plans then and see if he wants to be part of the post-Big Three Era.