2010-11 NBA Season: Are the Miami Heat Ready for the Boston Celtics?
So many times over this exciting NBA summer, this same question was asked, but only the other way around. Though the Miami Heat have yet to play a real NBA game they have been dubbed as “the team to beat” in the Eastern Conference. (ESPN NBA Round Table, “Biggest threat to Heat.”)
The Boston Celtics (Eastern Conference champions), Orlando Magic, Chicago Bulls and, with their new additions, the New York Knicks all are able to beat the Miami Heat.
More specifically, the Boston Celtics have a better overall team than the Miami Heat, but at the same time continue to fly under the radar just waiting for their chance to silence all of the talk about their doubters.
First, let’s do a roster breakdown between the Celtics and Heat:
Boston Celtics
No. 20 Ray Allen—Deadly shooter, 90+ free throw percentage, runs off screens well, capable defender.
No. 0 Avery Bradley (Rookie)—NBA-ready defender, great mid-range game.
No. 8 Marquis Daniels—Average scorer, good defender, “glue guy” for the Boston Bench Mob.
No. 11 Glen Davis—Relentless motor, hard worker, good finisher around the basket, 15-foot jumpshot.
No. 86 Semih Erden (Rookie)—Great prospect, good finisher around the basket, handles the ball well.
No. 5 Kevin Garnett—Heart and soul of Celtics, post presence, defensive leadership, outside jump-shooter.
No. 55 Luke Harangody (Rookie)—Hard worker, rebounder, average perimeter defender.
No. 7 Jermaine O'Neal—Great help-side defender, low post scorer, rebounder.
No. 36 Shaquille O'Neal—Good finisher, great rebounder, capitalizes off of penetration.
No. 43 Kendrick Perkins (Injured)—Great defender, anchor on defense, does all of the dirty work.
No. 34 Paul Pierce—Captain, savvy offensively, good defender, closer on offense.
No. 4 Nate Robinson—Can easily heat up (no pun intended), energetic on defense, scorer.
No. 9 Rajon Rondo—Great leader, defender, great passer, best pure point guard in the NBA; great finisher around the basket.
No. 12 Von Wafer—Pure scorer gives the Celtics a pure scorer off of the bench; great outside shooter.
No. 13 Delonte West—“X” Factor for the Celtics, capable of guarding point guards and shooting guards and a real threat on offense.
Miami Heat
No. 50 Joel Anthony—Solid defender, average rebounder.
No. 8 Carlos Arroyo—Good ball-handler, good passer.
No. 1 Chris Bosh—Great mid-range game, good finisher around the basket, younger version of Kevin Garnett minus the defensive presence.
No. 15 Mario Chalmers—Solid point guard, good outside shooter.
No. 40 Udonis Haslem—Great rebounder plays hustle defense.
No. 55 Eddie House—Great outside shooter, capable of heating up once in a while.
No. 5 Juwan Howard—Solid role player, solid rebounder, veteran.
No. 11 Zydrunas Ilgauskas—Veteran, solid rebounder, good range.
No. 6 LeBron James—Great scorer, great passer, great rebounder, closer in games, biggest offensive threat.
No. 22 James Jones—Great outside shot, scorer.
No. 21 Jamaal Magloire—Big presence in the middle, solid defender, shot-blocker, veteran.
No. 13 Mike Miller—Three-point threat, sixth-man, and scorer.
No. 45 Dexter Pittman (Rookie)—Big center, average rebounder.
Jerry Stackhouse—Veteran, solid scoring threat, good finisher.
No. 3 Dwyane Wade—Pure scorer, great passer, unselfish, another finisher in the closing seconds.
By looking at the opposing rosters, against the Celtics, the Miami Heat only have two real threats. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are the only players that can hurt the Celtics, but other than that, no one else “really” poses a threat on offense or defense.
Due to the Celtics depth and size, Chris Bosh will not pose as a big threat. The Miami Heat centers and point guards are their weakest positions, which happen to be strong points for the Boston Celtics.
Minus the great additions of Shaquille O’Neal, Jermaine O’Neal and Delonte West, this is the same Boston Celtics team that was five points from being NBA champions last year. Over the summer their hunger for another NBA championship grew and they have been able to keep all of their key players together.
Boston Celtic point guard, Rajon Rondo will also cause big problems for the Miami Heat with his speed, penetration and ability to finish.
With the NBA season less than 24-hours away, one of the most anticipated matchups will take place on the first night of the NBA regular season. Later on today, all of the predictions and pre-game analysis will be somewhat answered.
This has gone down in history as one of the most hyped and anticipated first game's of the regular season the NBA has ever seen. Regardless of which team wins they will still have 81+ more games to play. Though this is the first game of the regular season there will be a playoff atmosphere in the air as this game gives everyone a peek at what could be the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
