Heat Vs. Celtics Preview: Both Teams Will Finish Right Where They Started

With great anticipation looming for tonight's season opener, the NBA is back on top of the sports world.

This offseason has fueled a fire which the league hopes will bring fans and viewers back to the Jordan era numbers. All the speculations, rumors and pontifications will soon make way to actual on court results.

It's fitting that Miami opens the season at Boston. After all these two teams will eventually meet in the Eastern Conference Finals with everything at stake.

That's right folks it's not much of a prediction but I'm saying right now that the East will be settled in a Game 6 match up at the Garden.

Tonight merely serves as the first battle in what is sure to be a season long war.

Miami enters the contest with the expectation that the "Super Friends" will be able to share the court for longer than three minutes. It's unclear how much of an impact Wade's preseason long injury will have on the team's performance tonight but him having missed all those games can't be a good thing. At least not for a team that badly needs to establish some sense of on court chemistry and cohesion.

The Boston Celtics meanwhile have to be coming into this contest with a great deal of motivation. All summer long it seemed as though the Celtics were disregarded by most of the media. It's not to say people think they're done and can't win a title this year, but they didn't get any of the attention and coverage that Miami did.

The Celtics and their home crowd would love nothing more than to beat up on the new NBA darlings as a way of sending a message to the rest of the league. Boston will have a big advantage at the center and point guard positions along with opening the season before the hometown faithful.

The Heat will be looking to set the tone for what is sure to be an exciting season. Miami must find a way to exploit their edge at the two and three spot over Boston. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade must annihilate Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, for Miami to prove to the world that they truly are as good as many have labeled them to be.

This may just be a regular season game, but make no mistake, there will be a playoff atmosphere to it. Both of these teams have had this day marked on their calenders for a couple months now and are going in to the contest expecting nothing less than a 12-round slug fest.

The Celtics want to show that they're still the baddest guys on the Eastern block, while Miami has several players whose seasons ended in Boston and are looking for a some payback.

There are several story lines which make this a compelling match up. Alas after a long and dramatic offseason we can finally say that the waiting is over and that tip off is just around the corner.

Match-ups

Center: It's not even close (Edge Celtics).

Power Forward: Bosh is getting better, KG is getting older (Edge Heat).

Small Forward: LeBron will abuse Pierce and make him wish he was already in Europe (Edge Heat).

Shooting Guard: Allen at his peak was great, but he can't contain Wade now (Edge Heat).

Point Guard: Heat cut their only player capable of slowing down Rondo (Edge Celtics).

Coaching: Battle of Pat Riley proteges goes to Doc Rivers over Eric Spoelstra (Edge Celtics).

Intangibles: Boston enjoys home-court advantage while Miami hasn't played together much (Edge Celtics).

Prediction

Miami to win by 3