Tropic Blunder: Positives and Negatives From the Miami Heat's Opening Night Loss

Needless to say, I don't think anyone predicted that the season opener between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics would be this ugly. The two teams combined for 23 points in the first quarter and it appeared that the Celtics were ready to blow the Heat out of the water by taking a 19 point advantage in the second quarter before LeBron James would come alive and bring the Heat to a six point deficit going into the fourth quarter.

However, the Celtics would provide to be too much in the fourth as Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen would hit clutch shots to give Boston a late 11 point lead. Following chants of 'overrated' by the Celtics fans, a run led by Wade and James would bring the Heat within three with a little over a minute remaining.

Like he has been doing throughout his career though, Allen would hit a clutch baseline three-pointer to give the C's a six point advantage that the Heat could not recover from. Boston would go onto win the game 88-80 behind Allen's 20, Pierce's 19, and Glen Davis's 13 off the bench. LeBron James led the Heat with 31 points on 10 of 21 shooting while Dwyane Wade would struggle with 13 points on 4 of 16 shooting.

It was an all-around sloppy game for the Heat. It was obvious that Wade was coming off of an injury as he limited his drives and forced contested jump shots. Bosh looked horrid on the offensive end as Garnett and Davis hounded him to the tune of eight points on 3 of 11 shooting.

Yet, the Heat still nearly came back and won. This will probably be the worst game you will ever see from Miami the rest of the year considering this is the first full regulation NBA game that the big three have played together. They will continue to form a chemistry and Wade will get healthier as the year goes on.

In a roller coaster of a game where just about everything that was supposed to happen didn't, there were still some positives amongst the obvious negatives every NBA fan witnessed from the Heat tonight. Here are a few positives and negatives from the Heat's 88-80 season opening loss to the Boston Celtics.

Positive

LeBron James running the point is how the Heat should go the rest of the season.

Carlos Arroyo was abysmal as the Heat's starting point guard. The offense never ran fluent with him on the court and it was only when LeBron ran the point late in the third quarter that the Heat began to make a run and make a game out of it. Arroyo only played 12 minutes and finished with three points on 1 of 3 shooting.

It never once appeared that the offense was smooth when he was on the court and it was obvious that James should continue to run the point. With the ball in his hands, LeBron was able to create the tempo to his game and it would be the driving force that would turn a 19 point deficit into six going into the fourth quarter.

Negative

The point guard's still cannot play defense.

Rajon Rondo might have only finished with four points, but it was his 17 assists that gave the Celtics a big advantage in the first half and an eventual win. Rondo was able to penetrate constantly and with ease as the threat of his drives would draw double teams where Rajon would pass out to an open shooter.

Rondo's drives would limit the Heat's perimeter defense and leave the door open for Allen to hit open three-pointers off of his passes. It was a clear flaw in Miami's starting lineup that the point guard position would be a defensive liability and it did as it led to the Celtics leader.

Were James to start at the one spot, the Heat not only have a more capable defender and advantage, but they'd open the door for James Jones to start at small forward where he would be given more minutes and more chances to hit from deep.

Positive

Offensive Rebounding

Another concern of the Heat entering into the season was the team's lack of size at the center position that would have thought to cause a drop off in rebounding. Even though Miami was out-rebounded overall 42-39, they received a great deal of hustle points from Joel Anthony, Udonis Haslem, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas under the boards on the other end to give the Heat an 11-8 advantage on the offensive boards.

Haslem led the game in offensive rebounds with four and 11 overall, while Big Z and Anthony each grabbed three, and Bosh brought down two. We might be a little too hasty considering the starting bigs for the Celtics are both over the age of 35, but it was still an outstanding effort on the offensive boards as every rebounder did their part to give the Heat second chance's.

Negative

Help defense needs to be limited

Help defense is either feast or famine. You leave your player open to help out a teammate in an attempt to either force a contested shot or pass or it backfire's and the ball goes to the player you left open for a wide open opportunity. In a number of cases, James and Bosh were driven away from their match-up's to help out a teammate. It backfired late in the game when Garnett, Pierce, and Allen each hit dagger's that would prevent a Heat victory.

It did pay off a couple times as the Heat force the Celtics into 18 turnovers, but in the fourth quarter of a close game, the Heat should stick to one on one as they had three quality defenders in Haslem, James, and Wade all on the floor. Each player is excellent at playing man defense and they shouldn't be required to help out teammates that much late in games.

Positive

Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are still clutch.

Even though Wade had possibly the worst shooting game for the rest of the season, he still came up big with passes to open players and a contested three-pointer that brought the Heat within five points late in the fourth quarter. James was no different as he not only was the most consistent Heat player, but was the one who got the comeback started mid-way through the third quarter.

With talk of who will need to take the last shot when it comes down to that point, it won't really matter as both these players can hit from anywhere and at any given moment. Dwyane Wade struggled for most of the game and still was the a huge threat late in the fourth quarter only proving that he is the superstar that we have grown to love.

Negative

Abandon the half-court offense.

This is not a half-court team. Last year's Heat team that featured Dwyane Wade and a roster of scrubs might have been appropriate, but on a team where you feature two of the most athletic players that thrive in the open court, there is no reason not to run an offense with a higher tempo. In fact, it was when LeBron began running the game to his tempo in the third quarter that the Heat began to play up to expectations.

The Heat played to the Celtics tempo and they suffered from it. Dwyane and LeBron are slashers who drive for a living and need to use their athleticism to their advantage. By running a faster pace against an older team like the Celtics, the Heat would have been able to tire out Boston's big three and have had a better chance to win.

There is no need to hit the panic button quite yet Heat fans. It's one game and they lost to an extremely tough Celtics team in a hostile environment. Wade and Bosh struggled, while James attempted to pick up the pieces and it didn't work out in the end. Boston played an excellent game aside from a few lapses in the second half and they capitalized off of the Heat's mistakes and they deserved this win.

It's a long season however and the Heat get a bounce-back game at Philadelphia tomorrow night. With 81 more games to play in the regular season, there is no need to worry about Wade and Bosh struggling every night. This Heat team is being deemed as a super team for a reason and they will live up to expectations when given the time to create a chemistry.