First Night of NBA, Nothing Short of Entertaining

Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics

Lebron James was the only Heat player to show up, shooting
10-for -21 from the field and putting up a solid 31 points.

Tuesday night, the highly anticipated newest threat in the NBA the Miami Heat, faced the old veteran Boston Celtics trio in Boston. As Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, and Chris Bosh entered the arena, they were surrounded with chants of "overrated" and loud boos, which just may have the been the perfect term to describe the Heat's play that night. The Miami Heat almost seemed out of sync the first quarter, only being held to 9 points to a Celtic's 16, and ultimately down by 15 points, 30-45 at Halftime. It truly was surprising to see how poorly the Heat shot from the field in the first half; 11 of 41 (a weak 26.8 percent) opposed to Boston shooting a solid 17 - for - 38 (44 percent). While the Heat faced a difficult first half, they did seem to finally connect as a team more in the third and fourth quarter cutting the deficit to 6 heading into the final twelve minutes.
          Lebron James seemed to be the only dominant force for the Heat Tuesday night, as Dwayne Wade only accumulated 13 points on 4- for -16 shooting and Bosh only producing 8 points and 8 rebounds. It makes people believe that because of the minor injury (strained right hamstring) Wade had faced during the pre-season showed Tuesday night. Only playing three minutes overall in the pre season, Dwayne Wade seemed out of sync shooting wise and just did not seem to "flow" well, leading LBJ alone to carry the team. Although Lebron had 8 turnovers throughout the entire game compared 7 times total by the four other starters on the floor, he was the most productive on the floor by far with fifteen of his points in the third quarter to even keep the Heat close in the game and give them a chance. As entertaining these three all-stars may seem, the Miami Heat look more productive when the trio are not all on the floor together. The men in this trio are not yet accustomed to the other threats available on the team, and still need to get comfortable and try to find their role or style of play as a whole. As Lebron James quoted after the game, "It's a feel-out process." Although the Heat fell to the Celtics 88-80, I am not too worried about this new squad as I am confident they will continue to play better as a team and dominate the East.

Phoenix Suns vs. Portland Trailblazers

Although Steve Nash may still be one of the best point guards
in the NBA, he cannot carry the entire Phoenix squad and
expect to keep a solid winning record.

          Brandon Roy and his Trailblazers saw it was necessary that it was time for revenge against the Phoenix Suns, as they fell to them last season in the first round of the playoffs in six games. The first three quarters of the game seemed to be fairly productive for both teams, but more of an edge to the Suns as they carried the lead 81-75 into the fourth quarter. Up to this point, Steve Nash and Jason Richardson were the only Suns players producing, which ultimately led to the first loss of the season. With 26 points total from Nash and Richardson's 22, they were nearly the only players with points in double digits (besides power forward Hakim Warrick's 10) and just couldn't get enough help from the other teammates in the front court. These players such as Grant Hill (4 points in 26 minutes), Hedo Turkoglu (6 points in 27 minutes), and Robin Lopez (5 points in 25 minutes) combined a total of 15 points compared to recently traded Amare Stoudemire's 23.1 points per game last season. If these players as well as the rest of the Phoenix squad do not provide more points and fill the scoring gap of missing Amare Stoudemire, the Suns may be in trouble. It still is the beginning of a new season, so this is not something too severe to worry about, but changes need to be made and players need to start creating more scoring opportunities.

Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers
          It was an emotional night as the Los Angeles Lakers held a touching ceremony for their season opener as each player accepted their NBA championship ring, and celebrated their 16th championship by hanging the golden banner up in the Staples Center. The back-to-back champions sure needed every ounce of emotion they had to win this game Tuesday night against the fast and high-scoring Houston Rockets. The Lakers seemed to be fighting all night long as the Rockets held the lead for the majority of the game until the fourth quarter. The two teams traded the lead four times within the final minute the game and the final score wasn't ultimately decided until the final buzzer. While down by 11 points at half, the Lakers outscored the Rockets 61-48 in the second half and received their third straight season-opening win. Although Yao Ming had returned and played his first game since April 15 2009, and racked up 9 points and 11 rebounds it was not enough to stop the final surge of Kobe Bryant and his team.

The Los Angeles Lakers reveal their sixteenth NBA championship
banner at the season opener before they faced the Houston Rockets.

          With the new addition of Steve Blake and his helpful clutch back-to-back 3 point baskets to help trim the Rocket lead, along with the obvious scoring support of Pau Gasol and Shannon Brown, the Los Angeles Lakers were able to reel in the W. Even though the game was a battle till the end, the Lakers had the will and heart to finish when needed most and played as a team to start off 1-0 for the new 2010-2011 season. The defensive stance during the final seconds sealed the victory for the Lakers, as Lamar Odom blocked  Houston guard Aaron Brook's attempted reverse layup ending the game. Tuesday, October 26th, was the start of the NBA season and was definitely entertaining to say the least.

Any thoughts?