Opening Night

One hundred and eleven days ago, my NBA world was shattered. Plain and simple. I don’t need to rehash what went on, because it’s only going to make me upset, but needless to say yesterday was an interesting night of emotions. Was I actually going to cheer for the Celtics? A blasphemous thought considering the emotional investment I spent in disliking them the last three years, but at the same time, I couldn’t bring myself to cheer for LeBron’s new team right. I was texted before the start of the game, asking who I would be cheering for? After a few seconds to think, I responded with “the NBA.” That was the most honest answer I could come up with, because regardless of my personal feelings toward either team, this was a fantastic thing for a league facing possible lockout. There are so many interesting major stories and intricate subplots involving all of the elite teams, that I am very excited to see how the next few months play out.

Now as for last night (which I called perfectly by the way…Celtics by 8, should have bet the house), I don’t think much should be gleaned from the abysmal showing by the Miami Heat. It was essentially the first game they were playing together, they had three months of anticipation weighing on their shoulders, and all of that showed in their play. Dwayne Wade was horrible. Even dating back to his days at Marquette I have never seen him play that poorly, and it only progressed from bad to worse as he started to press to get on track. His shots weren’t falling, he was over dribbling, making dumb passes…all of the things that come with missing significant time like he did. With the hamstring injury and the custody hearings he missed the entire preseason, so it will take him probably 3-5 games to get fully right. After that, this team will begin to gel and they will be fine. The only major flaw I saw last night, and it was stressed by the announcers…the Heat have absolutely no inside presence, and that limits them to jump shooting team. And you know what happens to jump shooting teams on cold shooting nights or against a half court defensive juggernaut…they struggle to score (uhm cough, 30 first half points). The Heat need to play at a much higher pace, because you could see the potential they have to wreak havoc on anyone in the open court. One other small nitpicking item is that on two different occasions, LeBron looked actually annoyed at Wade taking spin move fadeaways down the stretch…just saying, something to watch as the year progresses. Because while they have said all the right things about not caring who takes big shots, words and actions are two very distinct things.

What I really take from last night, is something I believed before the season even started…that barring major injuries, the Celtics are the team to beat in the East, and quite possibly the entire league. It sounds absurd because it was the first game of the season, but Doc Rivers coached it, and the Celtics played it like it was a playoff game. This team believes they should have won the title last year, and are feeling incredibly disrespected at being considered an afterthought as the defending Eastern Conference Champs. They looked rejuvenated, and each of the Big 4 played over 35 minutes last night. Now that will obviously not be the case as the season progresses, but it was important in sending a message to the league, the East goes through Boston.

You will notice above that I referred to the Celtics core as the Big 4, and honestly it should be the Big Rondo plus the old Big 3. I think Barkley said it best, “Rondo is a ridiculous player. He absolutely dominates the game without scoring.” When you think about it, it is truly amazing how effective Rondo is considering his major flaws. He can get into the lane at will even though defenders give him five feet cushions. And once he is in there, he always has his head on a swivel and always seems to find the open man. In the first quarter, I counted four consecutive possessions where Rondo drove, accepted the double team and found either Ray, Pierce, or Shaq for a wide open shot. He finished with a “mind-bottling” 17 assists and despite looking like ET without his headband (more on this later), he is a true pleasure to watch.

Just a random bit to close…You know who had the highest +/- of any player last night? Rondo… nope. Pierce…no. Ray Ray….guess again. It was big Z. Yep the big Lithuanian played 11 minutes, had 3 steals, 3 boards and a +17 point impact. Just for comparison sake, Bosh was -17, (3-11 shooting), Wade was -18 (4-16 shooting), and everyone on the Celtics was in the positive column except Ray Allen (-2), with Pierce leading the way at +12. Take these stats as you will, just had to get my boy Z some love.

Now as this blog extends into its second season, I thought it was obviously time for some expansion. To facilitate the massive demand for knowledge by my numerous (4, 5, dare I say 6) followers, I have brought in an additional contributor… Law student extraordinaire Alex Terry. For his first story, he has the exclusive answer for why Rondo no longer hides his massive forehead with a headband. As you may or may not know, the NBA logo is a silhouette of Laker great Jerry West. You also may have heard that the Celtics and Lakers don’t like each other very much. Well to spite the Lakers, Rondo always wore the headband with the logo facing upside down. Despite secretly loving the hatred between these franchises for bettering the NBA finals, the league came down and said Rondo had to wear the headband upright. Well since he is “such a g” (-Alex Terry), Rondo said he would rather wear no headband at all. Personally I don’t care and think this story is beneath the Pulitzer level reporting of this blog, but you get what you pay for I guess.

Predictions blog to come soon.