Miami Heat's Season-Opening Win More Significant Than Most

MIAMI — Old habits are hard to break, and old rivals are hard to like, so the Heat fans did what they have always done when Paul Pierce has been introduced here, and especially during the past four years, when they viewed him as one of the primary irritants to their adopted hero. They booed lustily, just as they did when Pierce was a member of the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets before he became a Washington Wizard.

But that was about the only time the opponent mattered Wednesday night, a night that seemed as much an exercise in civic pride as an exhibition of basketball.

The game was entertaining, for sure, a 107-95 Heat victory, albeit against a Wizards squad missing two starters (Bradley Beal and Nene) and two other rotation players (DeJuan Blair and Martell Webster). But the most striking performance, more than even Chris Bosh (26 points, 15 rebounds), Norris Cole (23 points on 9-of-15 shooting), Dwyane Wade (21 points, including two three-pointers) or James Ennis (more on him later), came from those in attendance. 

"That's the loudest it's been for an opener," Mario Chalmers said. "That's what we need."

It should be noted that Chalmers has now played in seven home openers here, including four with an unrivaled attraction named LeBron James. And while some might challenge Chalmers' recollection—since there was a bit of a buzz in 2010 for James' home Heat debut against Orlando, as well as for the ring ceremonies prior to 2011 and 2012 home openers against Boston—his comment alone suggests that the Heat's offseason "Heat Nation" and "Heat Lifer" campaigns, however hokey and heavy-handed, have resonated with the intended audience:

Their supporters.

Their real supporters.

Not the be-seen contingent, but the core fans who remember Sherman Douglas and Steve Smith, and who wore "Majerle" jerseys just to the old Miami Arena, but to this arena, long after he retired. 

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South Florida, beleaguered for its seemingly blase support of one of the most compelling collections of talent in recent NBA history, has rallied behind ownership, management (especially Pat Riley) and the new, much less heralded roster. It has also stood up for itself in the face of relentless media mockery and now, with James gone, extreme media indifference.

As the team's longtime president of business operations, Eric Woolworth, told The Miami Herald's Ava Wallace:

"

There's this concept out there, particularly in the national media—[NBA analyst] Bill Simmons took a shot at us—that the arena's going to be half-empty, and I think our fans feel that. I think they want to give Bill Simmons and the rest of the national media a collective 'screw you,' for lack of a better way to say it.

"

They said it not only with Wednesday's sellout but with most actually arriving to their seats on time, even if they did have a little help from a delayed start time.

They were rapt during a six-minute "Heat Nation" short film, narrated by Alonzo Mourning, and with James only fleetingly making an appearance, as a Cavalier, in the camera shot of Dwyane Wade's memorable posterization of Anderson Varejao. And they were engaged throughout, in their "Heat Nation" T-shirts and with their "Heat Nation" flags, and with less prompting than they have typically required. 

"The energy in the building was great," Erik Spoelstra said. "Heat Nation, they've been waiting for this game, we've been waiting for this game. We felt it from the open scrimmage, that the fans would be behind us." 

Will they be back Sunday evening against Toronto, just two hours after a Dolphins home game, roughly 20 miles away? And for a Tuesday night in late January against the Bucks? 

Well, that's largely up to the players. 

They'll need to do what they did against the Wizards again, and again, and again. They'll need to do it even though they have some deficiencies, a bit short on rim-protectors and long-range shooters. 

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"It was good for us just to get this win," Wade said. "Now we have a base that we can look at and see where we can get better." 

"We want to hit the ground running," Bosh said. "We know that we have to get off to a good start in this season if we want to get to where we want to go. We've been talking about it. Whether people believe it or not, we believe in this locker room." 

It was a small step, with so many still required, toward building greater belief in the greater community. Because just as Chalmers and the Heat need what they got from the crowd Wednesday, the crowd needs to see this kind of effort and result consistently from what Spoelstra characterized as a "lunch pail, hard hat" team, no longer "Hollywood as Hell," as Joakim Noah infamously labeled the Big Three Heat.

They need to see some hope, that all the excitement didn't evaporate when James exited, that this season isn't merely a bridge to some future free-agent fantasy, that Bosh and Wade can still flash superstar potential more than occasionally, and that some of the kids really are all right. 

They got all of that Wednesday. 

They got a Bosh who built on a promising preseason as the primary option, with 19 points in the first half, and then seven more when Miami needed them in the fourth quarter. 

"I get a lot of touches," Bosh said, laughing. "That's not necessarily to score every time. It's on me to decide what I want to do with it." 

What he did Wednesday was score 26 on 9-of-18 shooting while adding 15 rebounds—a line that he has never previously produced for Miami. The stat line was more in line with what he might have recorded while a Raptor, even if the approach was different. 

"I always kind of laugh when people say he has to be the C.B. from Toronto," Spoelstra said. "He's so much more of a dynamic player now than he was then. ...He will touch the ball everywhere on the court, and then be a decision-maker from there." 

He did some work in the post but largely operated from the elbow, mixing jumpers with drives. 

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"That's one of the things I have to get used to, is I'm going to have to be one of the guys to really take it to the hole, using my advantage," Bosh said. "It's not easy, it's not easy at all."

Especially when he is seeing more double-teams than he has in the past four years, when so much defensive attention was devoted to James. 

"Yeah, it was bull," Bosh said, smiling. "They did a great job of crowding me, and really crowding that strong side, and it surprised me a little bit in the beginning of the game. That's when I have to kind of go into the bag of tricks and do something else. Get the ball in a different part of the court and kind of catch them off guard. Not only that, rely on my teammates to make plays, trust those guys. When (opponents) are leaning on me, that's a good thing." 

And the 15 rebounds, after being criticized for light totals in recent years?

"I mean, it's good," Bosh said. "I need a couple of 'I told you so' throughout the course of this season, I'm not gonna lie. But with that said, it's one game." 

He isn't the only one fueled by the desire to disprove the doubts. Cole and Chalmers want to prove they can be reliable backcourt players, both in new roles—Cole as a starter, Chalmers as a sixth man—and they combined to give the Heat a total of 31 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 53 minutes.

Luol Deng wants to prove that he can be closer to what he was in Chicago than in Cleveland. While Pierce had his moments against him, Deng also showed some quickness on offense and had an athletic swat of Marcin Gortat. 

Wade wants to prove he can still be present and productive for his team, especially when it matters most. And while his absence for several minutes in the second half—due to a calf cramp—briefly gave new life to the unreliability narrative, he returned to finish with a flourish.

A baseline jumper. A slick bounce pass in traffic to Deng for a layup. And a couple of threes to seal the deal, after which he pointed to the sky in celebration while being showered with love from all of the arena's sides. 

"Didn't want to force a lot of things," Wade said. "I did a lot of the driving and kicking. We didn't shoot the ball well early. I could have had about 12 assists early on, but those shots are going to be there. And then in the fourth quarter, that's the time that I love. When the ball gets put in my hands, I'm able to make plays."

Someone else made a play in the fourth quarter, a play that may be most remembered from this opener, the sort of play that will bring people back. 

The kid from Down Under went Way Over. 

"Trending?" James Ennis asked. "Trending?" 

Yes, trending. 

As he sat in front of his locker, the 2013 second-round pick had yet to see a replay but was eager to enjoy it in slow motion and to see it on SportCenter's Top 10, where he believed it would belong. 

"When I'm on the fast break, all I know is just to take off," Ennis said. "I'm the fast-break guy, to get the crowd on their feet." 

Ennis said he didn't see Rasual Butler until the last minute. He didn't have complete control, because he can't palm the ball. So he cuffed it. 

"It came out of my cuff," Ennis said. "I don't know how I still got it. ... I was pumped. The crowd was wild. I was happy, man, just to make it." 

The NBA Summer League sensation has already made an impression, as has his fellow rookie Shabazz Napier, who played a solid 15 minutes. They offer some promise for the present and the future, for an organization that has long needed an injection of youth. 

"He'll make you watch even if he makes mistakes," Spoelstra said of Ennis.

The people came, watched, cheered, stomped and smiled—a night of good feeling following a turbulent, frustrating summer. 

Now, perhaps they'll come back.