Celtics fall to Heat in
Season Opener, 120-107
The NBA season kicked off last night
and the two titans of the Eastern Conference squared off in the NBA's
marquee matchup that featured the defending champion Miami Heat
facing off against the Boston Celtics. Two thing marred this Celtics
game, Turnovers and Defense. While the turnovers should be a surprise
to nobody as they've always been awful at taking care of the ball it
was very uncharacteristic of them to give up 120 points on 54%
shooting. The defensive rotations and pick & roll defense were
absolutely atrocious. People were late on their rotations and guards
were coming off of screens scoring at the rim. After only being down
8 points at the half the Heat who looked like they were in control
all night extended the lead to 17. In the 4th quarter the Celtics
were saved by an unlikely savior, Leandro Barbosa. Barbosa scored all
16 of his points in the 4th quarter just trying to keep the Celtics
in the game as the Heat were without Lebron James who left early with
Leg Cramps. In the end bad defense and turnovers cost the Celtics
this game. The biggest storyline going into this game was Ray Allen
going up against his former team and how he would play. Well it's
safe to say he's acclimated pretty well to his new team. Ray finished
with 19 points and gutted his former team with back breaking shot
after back breaking shot. While the new members of the Heat played
well the same could not be said for the Celtics. Not including
Leandro Barbosa the Celtics bench scored only 13 points,so much for
this "new found depth".Jeff Green, who was coming off a
great preseason looked like a guy who hadn't played a meaningful game
in over a year. He looked lost on defense and tentative on offense.
In all seriousness the Celtics are going to need time to gel and
cohesion is not formed through one regular season game.
The one and only thing that
impressed me during this game was the offense. A team that was as
inept on offense as you can get last year looked like the "7
seconds or less" Suns out there. They were getting out in
transition,knocking down their shots and getting to the free throw
line. As usual our offense was carried by the Captain Paul Pierce who
finished with a team high 23 points on 6-15 shooting and 9-9 at the
Free Throw line. Early on in the game I was really disappointed by
Rondo, I thought he'd come out ultra aggressive and assert his will
on the offensive side of the ball but instead in the first quarter he
finished with just 0 points. Going forward the Celtics are going to
need Rondo's offense, they can't always count on Leandro Barbosa
going 6-8 from the field. He needs to take it to rim and draw fouls.
I did however like his confidence in his Jumper something that has
not been present in years past. On the other side of the ball the
Miami Heat looked as thought they were coming off an NBA Finals
win(Oh wait they're) and were in control for most of the game. Lebron
was.....well he was Lebron and dominated both sides of the court with
26 points and 10 rebounds. Dwayne Wade had 27 to lead the Heat and
Chris Bosh had 19. It was evident last night that the Celtics weren't
in midseason form defensively but there's a lot of time to get things
right and I have faith in Doc Rivers to get the job done. There's a
reason they play 82 games.
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