C's Take Down Heat in Opener

After watching ESPN for the past four months, you likely thought the Heat were getting ready to raise their championship banner tonight. Back here on planet earth in good, sweet reality, though, the Celtics hosted the Heat at the Garden and gave them a nice little taste of what championship basketball has been and always will be about.

Now, don't take this the wrong way. I'm not anointing the C's as champs or writing off the Heat. It's one game. There are 82 of them in a season. The Heat will be a good team this year and we'll probably see them in the playoffs. And it will be a tough series to win. But tonight, I hope LeBron get a bit of a reality check. Remember his guarantee? I included it up there if you forgot about it. I think tonight might have reminded him just how difficult it is to beat the best teams in the NBA. He's been trying for years and he's come up short every time. I think his goal should be to win 1 championship. Not 8.

Back to the matter at hand, though. I still believe that Dwayne Wade will need to be the leader of this squad moving forward. LeBron outscored everyone and had himself a great game -- I get that. But guess what? The result was consistent with LeBron's career. The Heat want results more consistent with Wade's career. The best way for the Heat to be effective is to make sure they distribute the touches between those two guys. Tonight, LeBron was hot. He was taking all the shots and handling the ball. It prevented Wade from hitting a rhythm, though. And when that happens, this team just becomes yet another LeBron-led squad that will come up short against well-coached, well-defending teams like the Celtics. Plain and simple, end of story.

As for the C's, they looked great tonight. They let their guard slip a little in the second half, but you have to expect a big run any time you're playing the likes of LeBron James or players of similar caliber. They endured the run, kept their composure, got through the bumps along the way and made the clutch shots when they needed to. Just the way the Celtics have always done it. Shaq and Jermaine played their roles well and the bench unit looked as solid as you could have asked for. Given the enormous task before them in facing a Miami Heat team that people are a little bit excited about -- Boston gets an A+ for their opening act.

The C's will look to keep the ball rolling tomorrow night as they travel to Cleveland to face the Cavs. I'm sure every Cavs fan was a Celtics fan tonight, but they certainly won't be Celtics fans tomorrow.