What a difference a year makes. Last July the Miami Heat was hosting pep rally parties that would make Charlie Sheen envious. From the elaborate pyrotechnic displays to the premature, celebratory dance moves to the ridiculous self-proclamations of 6 NBA titles; these same players were reduced to bewildered, sobbing superstars after Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bulls.
It was Miami’s fourth consecutive loss and it dropped them to third place in the Eastern Conference. They have now lost five of their last six contests, including an embarrassing 30-point blowout to the San Antonio Spurs, and have failed to beat any of the top teams since Christmas day, when they beat the Lakers in L.A.
In an interesting post-game revelation, their coach, Eric Spoelstra, in an effort to prove their desire to win, indicated that there were several players crying in the locker room after the game. This, of course, incited a media blitz on a team who once considered themselves as an invincible, unbeatable force who was going to obliterate the rest of the league and rewrite the history books along the way.
The Heat now has an incredibly underwhelming record of 14-18 this season against teams with a winning record. Well, they better save up some of those tears, because their schedule does not get any easier. Their next six opponents all having winning records and include top teams such as the Spurs, Lakers, Thunder and Hawks.
This type of scrutiny has to be music to Celtic players and fans. All the attention is being paid to the under-achievements of the Heat while Boston continues to pile up the wins. They are now five games clear of the Miami Heat in the loss column with only 21 games to play. Despite numerous injuries, the Celtics remain on a roll, and don’t look now, but the Spurs have actually dropped a couple games recently and the Celtics have moved within three games of the best record in the entire NBA.
With the recent success of Boston, it has allowed them to rest ailing big men Shaq and Jermaine O’Neal without much urgency to rush their return. Delonte West is still a little banged up and his health will be a vital component to the Celtics post-season aspirations. With West’s absence, the Celtics looked to add some depth in the backcourt as they signed guard, Carlos Arroyo.
A quiet move that went mostly unnoticed, Arroyo was once the starting point guard for the Miami Heat, but he was casually discarded by the Heat in order to make room for the newly acquired Mike Bibby. This was a good signing for the C’s. He is a capable ball handler who possesses a pass-first mentality that could be a perfect fit as the primary back-up to Rondo. In addition to his willingness to distribute the basketball, he has shot 44 % from three-point land this season.
His skills could provide a proficient complimentary role and his desire for revenge against his former team could add a little more fuel to the fire in this newly formed rivalry if these two teams were to meet up with one another in the post season.
At this point, however, it doesn’t seem as though the Heat will even make it that far. As the standings sit today, the Heat would have to make it to the Eastern Conference finals in order to match up with the Celtics, and that seems like a pretty tall task at the moment. The fact is, Miami is a combined 0-6 against the two teams currently seated above them in the standings (Chicago and Boston).
Therefore, if the Heat wants to be considered as legitimate championship contenders, they better stop the crying and figure out a way to change their approach to the way they are playing these games, because, amazingly enough, just passing the ball to Lebron and Dwayne Wade and hoping for the best, isn’t working out so well. I think the Orlando Magic coach, Stan Van Gundy summed it up best:
“I do chuckle a little bit when they sort of complain about the scrutiny they get… My suggestion would be if you don’t want the scrutiny, you don’t hold a championship celebration before you’ve even practiced together… I think the players thought it was going to be easy and they were going to roll over everybody… It hasn’t materialized that way up to this point.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. This new twist certainly sets up for an interesting finish to the season and it looks like the Celtics, even with all the changes and new faces, have set themselves up for another potentially successful post season run. We’ll see how it plays out, but let’s hope the only tears the Celtic players cry this year are tears of joy after winning another NBA Championship.
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