Predicting what’s ahead with the NBA season just round the corner
Miami Heat versus the Boston Celtics
LeBron James is in the Miami Heat this season and would want to forget the last season where the Boston Celtics won the match in the playoffs easily. They did it in a dominating and commanding way in the last 3 games of the playoffs.
However, now that he is in the Miami Heat, LeBron will be looking at the other two players’ part of the “big three” of the Miami trio to take revenge. The Miami Heat, on the other hand, had a poor run of their own during the preseason and last year they
were knocked out by the Boston Celtics in the 1st round of the playoffs.
The Boston Celtics displayed some excellent skill as they went past the very impressive Orlando Magic last year to give the Los Angeles Lakers a tough time in the NBA Finals only to lose it in the 7th game.
However, the achievements and the experience of players like Shaquille O’Neal and Paul Pierce won’t stop the Miami Heat from winning provided that all the big three perform well. The Miami Heat has to cope with the leadership of two players who dominate
their teams and the stand out players in Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. If they are successful in doing so then a win is ahead of them in the very first game.
The Boston Celtics would give the Miami Heat a tough time during the game as they have shown some impressive form during the preseason winning 7 out of the 8 games and maintaining 4-game winning streak. But still the Miami Heat would win in a tough battle
which might even go into overtime with both teams expected to take their scores into triple figures.
Shaquille O’Neal and Boston Celtics
Shaquille O’Neal has recently been reported to have some problems with his hip that has limited his time on court.
During the course of preseason the Diesel came up with impressive performances out of which the match against the New Jersey Nets could be labelled as the best thus far. But that was after he played over 30 minutes in the game and after which he faced the
hip problem.
What’s concerning is if the Boston Celtics aim to make it to the Finals with Shaq being an important part then Shaq’s health is to be kept in mind. Shaquille O’Neal will be 39 before the playoffs begin and the Boston Celtics would restrict his time to 20
minutes so that he remains fit for the playoffs.
But encounters like the first game of the season where the Celtics will be up against the Miami Heat, Shaq would be playing more minutes which would take a lot out of him. The Boston Celtics are not concerned about this at the moment but it might give them
problems when he would be done with half the regular season.
Houston Rockets giving a tough time to the Los Angeles Lakers in the season opener
Though this might seem odd but there are a lot of chances of not only the Houston Rockets giving the Lakers a tough time but also winning the game. Though the Houston Rockets didn’t make it into the playoffs last year, but Yao Ming wasn’t available then
and now he is back.
Coupled with this is the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers and Phil Jackson approach the regular season and playoffs with different strategy. This can be seen from the fact that the defending champions started the 2007-08 with the 7-6 record. And last year
they started their title defence with 7-3 record, losing two home games.
This might give the Houston Rockets a chance to steal a win at the start of the season as the Lakers didn’t come up with particularly good preseason as well. Their win/lose ratio has been the same 4-4. However, whichever team wins the game the score would
be very close. Added to this is that fact that the star shooter for the Houston Rockets, Aaron Brooks is in good form and would keep the Houston Rockets neck-to-neck with the Lakers during the game.
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