Miami Heat Will Face Its Past in More Ways Than One in Series Against Celtics
Heat fans, let's take a moment to go back in time. Ten years ago to be exact.
It was the regular season of 2000-01, and Pat Riley had just orchestrated a coup, nabbing two of the summer's top-tier free agents in Eddie Jones and Brian Grant, and placing them alongside Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. Somewhere in between, Anthony Mason was involved as well.
It was an opportune time for change for the Miami Heat, as the late '90s marked the era of the Heat's inferiority to their ultimate nemesis, the New York Knicks.
Do you remember the Allan Houston shot with seconds left on the clock, as it bounced in and Houston ran to the other side of the court to punch the beating heart out of every Heat fan in the arena?
Or how about in another series when Miami had the ball in their hands with an opportunity to win the game, only to see Jamal Mashburn pass the ball to Clarence Weatherspoon and watch him miss?
At the end of the day, while Heat vs. Knicks was a rivalry to the rest of the NBA, it was a time that brought the Miami Heat more pain than joy.
Not always, but often, the Knicks proved to be:
tougher...
calmer...
united...
and more confident than the Heat.
Move to this regular season and the parallels are quite obvious.
The Miami Heat signed arguably the best player in the NBA in LeBron James and one of the better power forwards in the league in Chris Bosh to place alongside Dwyane Wade.
The team has an established nemesis once again, except this one wears green.
And if you listen around NBA circles, 95 percent of the experts think that the Celtics will beat the Heat in this series also.
But here's the funny thing about the Celtics. They are coached by Doc Rivers, a Pat Riley protege.
They are old, yet spry. They are flawed, yet proven. They won't blow you out of the building, but they will never let you blow them out of one either.
The Celtics, in fact, are made for close games.
The Heat meanwhile, with the tandem of LeBron and Wade being 1-13 in late-game situations, are not.
Let's face it. This Celtics team is Pat Riley from start to finish.
The players are nasty, tough, defensive-minded and merciless.
The intensity that beats in Kevin Garnett was at one time the same kind that beat in Alonzo Mourning.
Back then, the Heat were beaten, time and time again by the tandem perimeter forces of either Allan Houston and Larry Johnson or Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell.
Guess what? Miami's two best players happen to be perimeter players.
The roles have been reversed.
Now, Miami boasts the younger, talented and hungry team that the Knicks were once upon a time known to be.
The only question is whether the results will be the same?
As Miami embarks in it's latest conquest against it's loathsome nemesis, Heat fans can finally look back on those painful years against the Knicks with a glimmer of hope...that history once again repeats itself.
