Celtics Beat Heat On Opening Night (GOOD START)

Well, my prediction of the Celtics winning by 6 points was pretty spot on.  The C's ended up winning by 8 with a final score of 88-80.  Although they finally pulled away at the end, the game ended up being much too close for comfort. 

The Celtics had the game in hand for most of the 1st half and 3rd quarter and held a 15 point lead for a good amount of time.  Unfortunately, Pierce hurt his back on the ridiculous non-charge by LeBron when he just completely ran over Pierce and from that point on, LeBron started going off and brought the Heat all the way back within 3 points.  Wade and Bosh were fairly useless all game, so LeBron took the team on his back and showed why he is still one of the best players in the league. 

It was kind of scary to see the Celtics fall apart so easily but I think a lot of that could be due to rust and the pressure of what was probably the biggest opening night game in NBA history (or close to it).  They finally got their act together when Pierce and Allen started hitting some big shots but it wasn't as pretty as it should have been.  Had Pierce not come back into the game, I have a funny feeling the Heat would have pulled off the win. 

Doc pulled off some sketchy substitutions as usual and had the starters in a little too long in the 3rd Quarter which allowed the Heat to come back.  Although Rondo had 17 assists, he only had 4 points, wasn't being aggressive going to the hoop and he had a ton of bad passes and turnovers.  That was probably one of the worst 17 assist games I've ever seen.  Rondo could have gone to the basket at will against Arroyo and Chalmers but it looked like he was holding back like something was wrong.  Maybe it was just first night jitters but he needs to take advantage of matchups like that and do a little more scoring.  He could have easily ended up with 15 points or more had he just taken a few dribbles to the basket.  Hopefully that will change as the season progresses. 

Overall, it was a good start to the season and it was nice to see all of the analysts backtracking and making excuses for the Heat.  I think everyone quickly realized that the Celtics are still the team to beat in the East. 

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