Their were three games on the schedule for the 2010-11 NBA season opener: Miami traveled to Boston, Houston traveled to Los Angeles to play the Lakers, and Phoenix traveled to Portland.
This was to be the beginning of the Miami Heat dynasty, or not. The Heat lost to the Celtics, 88 -80. It was a pretty pathetic game by the Heat. Dwayne Wade shot 25% from the field (4/16) and Chris Bosh shot 27% from the field (3/11). LeBron James shot the ball well, shooting 47% and scoring 31 points, but he had a team high eight turnovers. Wade contributed six turnovers in the loss.
Let’s just say it is not how Heat fans (new and old) expected to start the season. The Big Three looked anything but great. Should Heat fans worry, absolutely not. It was one game, if you remember the Cavs started off horribly over the first five games last season, and they still won more games than any other team. The Big Three will get it together, but more concerning is the injury to Mike Miller. Miller had thumb surgery prior to the season start. This is a big injury, as Miller is one of the better perimeter shooters and he will need to be respected by defenders.
The next day the Heat were able to recover and beat the 76ers, but that wasn’t the main story of the day. The Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron’s former team, played the same Celtics team that beat the Heat the day before and won! The star-less Cavs beat the Celtics the day after the Celtics handled the Heat.
Does this indicate anything for the future, no, but it gave Cavs fans something to cheer about and feel good about. In the end, Heat will be going deep in the playoffs and the Cavs will not.
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[Photo Credit: Getty Images via smh.com.au]