NBA Eastern Conference Finals Preview

This might be The Boston Three Party's (left) last stand, and standing in their way is this pair of familiar foes (right)

Squaring off for the second consecutive year these two teams have had their fair share feature an assortment of stars that have either tasted victory in the past or swallowed agonizing defeat just about yearly. In what could potentially be the last time these two teams meet as they are, this is sure to be an historic series, that while it may not be very entertaining basketball-wise, it will prove pivotal to see what each team has in them.

In the red corner, carrying with them a sense of villainous behavior, as polarizing as they come, in the black and the red, and sometimes the white trim on their uniforms, from South Beach, Miami, Florida, the 305 area code, comes the most controversial team in years. The 3-time Most Valuable Player Award winner, a one-time NBA Finals MVP, and a cast of characters who, well, aren’t quite on their level, but have been decent enough for this team to get by, ladies and gentlemen, the Miami Heat.

And in the blue corner, from Boston, Massachusetts, a city that usually carries hatred across with it, they find themselves possibly in the hero role in this series. This “Big Three” was the original “Big Three,” and they put it all together in the 2007-08 season to accomplish one goal that they all had wanted from the get go: win an NBA Championship. And they did it in remarkable fashion in their first season together. Since then they have made the NBA Finals another time, falling to their foes from the west coast, made the Eastern Conference Semifinals twice where they fell to the runners up each time. Ladies and gentlemen, alongside the Boston Three Party, the Boston Celtics.

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumble (again).

The Starting Five

Is this the final run for Boston? We’ve heard the rumblings ever since their 5-game exit to the very same Miami Heat last year in the Conference Semifinals and since then the rumblings have been getting louder. There is a lot of speculation that this will be the last time that Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen all play with one another on this Boston Celtics team. For the most part a lot of them have shown their age thus far in the playoffs, including and especially Ray Allen who has been particularly disastrous in some games, which is very unlike what he has been for much of his career. Pierce, Allen, and Garnett need to play at their best if they want to even withstand the Heat’s presence and stranger things have happened. Whatever this all ends with, if this is indeed the final time, I do not expect the trio from Beantown to go down easily.

Will Chris Bosh’s absence be felt once again? The loss of Chris Bosh was about as impactful as impactful gets for the Heat when they squared up with the Pacers last round, and it was a surprise to many. A lot of people always (unjustifiably so) felt that Bosh was the weak link of the trio that Miami got in the 2010 free agency period. However that couldn’t be farther from the truth as we found out, because the Pacers and specifically Roy Hibbert destroyed the Heat on the glass last series. While they were able to get by without him, it’s a wonder whether or not they can do it again because the Celtics do have some solid big men in Garnett and Brandon Bass, who can both play very well when they’re on. It will be a big test for them but if they can get by without Bosh again you would have to hope he could come back in the Finals or they are going to be in some serious trouble against the frontcourts that the Spurs and Thunder have.

Can LeBron and Wade save the Heat again? I think last series brought something to a lot of people’s attention: the Heat are not very deep and for the most part the only two players on the team (when Bosh is not around) that are capable of doing any good are LeBron James, the NBA’s MVP, and Dwyane Wade. The other ten men on the team are, frankly, not as good as the Heat want them to be and it shows just by how much LeBron and Wade had to do in the series against the Pacers. We’ve seen this one-to-two man show act a couple of times in LeBron’s career, and we know how that story has ended. So can the SuperFriends band together once again and take down the Celtics if they can’t get contributions from the other members of the team? Only time will tell.

What impact will Rajon Rondo have on this series? The Celtics’ point guard will need to be at his absolute best if the Celtics look to stand a chance. Rajon Rondo took over Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, looking like he actually had a jump shot for a period of time and helped the Celtics over the surprising Sixers. Miami is a completely different animal though as we’ve learned and seen too many times, so arguably, if not the best player on this Boston team as it stands will need to play like a superstar. And he has in the past, and did so last year against the Heat, but it wasn’t enough. Will it be this year?

Will the role players on the Heat step up when called for this time? As already explained, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were absolutely pivotal toward the Heat beating the Pacers in six games last series. But as time dwindles on, the bench of the Heat needs to do well. You can only do so much with your superstars and the last couple of seasons have shown that you need a team to win it all. Sure, the great teams in the past have had stars, but Jordan and Pippen wouldn’t have won without Kerr or John Paxson. The Lakers had Kobe and Shaq, but what if Robert Horry doesn’t make clutch buckets? What about Derek Fisher? The Spurs have had a cavalcade of role players do well when asked, so it’s not uncommon. The Heat’s role players and bench players have got to start stepping up soon or this narrative will take an all too familiar turn.

Heat Check

What player will have to be at their absolute best for their team to win?

Doc Rivers: Whoa there, Doc Rivers isn’t a player, why is he on here? Well, ask and I shall tell you. I have already gone on record in this post saying Rajon Rondo needs to be at his absolute best, so it would be silly of me to repeat myself in this case, so I’m going to go with the head honcho of the Celtics. The man patrolling the sidelines has as much stake and as much of an impact as the players on the court do. Doc Rivers has proven himself to be an excellent coach since arriving in Beantown and Boston fans all know this. Rivers goes up against Erik Spoelstra once again, who I feel like gets unnecessarily and unjustifiably scapegoated for the Heat’s failures. Sure, coaches have big impacts on what occurs, but they don’t always have a great impact on why losses occur. So in this case, the Celtics are definitely helped by the fact that Rivers is on the bench for them, and if he outcoaches Spoelstra in some respects, the Celtics can stand a solid chance of making this a competitive series.

Dwyane Wade: If you were expecting LeBron James, then I apologize for getting your hopes up. It goes without saying that LeBron needs to play well. Damn near everybody says it. So instead I’m going to say that his comrade Dwyane Wade needs to be at his best. If you don’t believe me, go check out the games against Indiana. The ones where Wade was a non-factor, the Heat looked less than stellar. In some respects, they looked horrible. Since getting his knee drained though, Wade has looked like his old self and had an absolutely incredible Game 6 against the Pacers with 41 points and nearly pulled off a triple-double. The center of attention in “Wade County” needs to play like the 2006 Finals MVP and the elite player we all know that he is if the Heat want to make their second consecutive NBA Finals appearance.

And the Winner is…

I’m sure that most people want the Celtics to win over the Heat, since just about everybody seems to have maintained a high level of hatred for them since they all joined together two summers ago. I’m just not sure if it’s going to happen. It might wind up being a physical, competitive series, but a Celtics team that is old and has looked their age might come up very, very short in this series. In some respects, I don’t see this as even being close. I wouldn’t be shocked if I was wrong, but needless to say, it might get ugly and might get ugly in a hurry.

Heat in 5