Boston Celtics claim the season opener battle of Big Threes against Miami Heat
With all the expectations in the air, the NBA season opener was certainly a crowd entertainer. LeBron James and his miraculous Big Three proved heavily overrated against the older more defensively offensive Big Three of Celtics.
Tuesday night was disappointing for Heat fans who were there to see action from none other than the King of the court, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Action they did see but from the side they were not expecting it, as Boston Celtics defeated Miami Heat 88-80
in the Tuesday night season opener, winning not only the game but also the battle of the Big Threes.
The trio from Miami Heat was up to reincarnate the magic Celtics’ Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce created in their first season together, but failed to manage it. The first ever appearance of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade
and Chris Bosh together to win a championship was not at all as overwhelming as the fans expected it to be. One thing the Celtics are famous for is the life-line of their game plan, their defence. This defence was probably the only reason why Bosh had 8 forgettable
points and Miami shot only 23.5 percent in the first half.
Is it time to give up on Miami just now? Possibly not, since the amount of talent they have gathered in terms of the Big Three bringing their talents to South beach is enormous. King James knows that in a season opener, you need
to muster up courage to gel together as a winning combination. In a statement later in the evening, he said that it is not just something he is accustomed to with so many options and so many threats on the court at the same time. Even Celtics Coach Doc Rivers
seems quite convinced that Miami Heat is a team to watch out for and they would be great during the season, although the way Bosh and Wade performed in the opening night doesn’t seem convincing at all.
With Wade limited to 13 points on 4-of-16 shooting and Bosh adding 8 points and 8 rebounds, the Big Three were responsible for 15 out of 17 turnovers by Heat. Wade somehow seemed confident enough to say that it was just one of
the 82 this season and apologized to everyone who thought of the Trio taking it 82-0 since it wasn’t happening anyways.
The whole buzz initiated 110 days before the season opener by LeBron James on National Television suddenly seemed to come to an end. The decision of James leaving Cleveland for Miami was not good enough to tackle the decision by
Celtics Tuesday evening, with 20 points from Ray Allen, 19 points from Paul Pierce and 10 with 10 rebounds from Kevin Garnett. The evening, of course, belonged to Rajon Rondo, who had 17 assists for Celtics, a couple more than the Miami had as a team. Rondo
was one shy of his career best and third-most in the season opener since the 1986-87 Season.
Things turned up so badly for the Heat in the first half that even Shaq, the notoriously poor free-throw shooter, managed the first two he tried for his new team.
Miami had a brief burst scoring six straight points, the last basket being a dunk by James that drew cheers from a couple of Heat fans. A Celtics fan, however, brought the excitement down yelling James is supposed to do that so
it is not impressive.
The game seemed like a competition between a team that has spent three seasons together with chemistry far beyond any other team could imagine and a team that has not been together for more than three practice sessions. Garnett
oversimplified the Heat game saying they have not got the chemistry thing together yet but they would get there soon.
Celtics have had their bad days but fortunately for them, all those days are behind them at the moment. The team has somehow developed an ability to avoid playing what they call the “Hero Ball”. As in the final minute Pierce’s
instincts asked him to make that extra pass to Allen who got the clinching 3-pointer. The only good thing that James could remember from the game is that his 31 points are the most by a Heat player in his debut and he is really hoping to put the pressure
off his Big Three in the rest of the season.
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