As a die-hard Celtics fan who remained loyal during the David Wesley, Dino Radja, Rick Fox dark-ages I excitedly embraced our unexpected uniting of KG, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce in 2007. Even though I am incredibly pessimistic and expected those three to become selfish and bicker I had to admit that, judging all of them based on their ages and career paths, things looked rather promising. Boy did they deliver - game six of the Finals that year was one splendid occasion around these parts. 

Unlike the newly minted Miami Heat “Big 3”, their Boston counter-parts were openly supported, lauded for their unselfishness, and became fairly popular champs nationwide (except in L.A., of course).

That 2007-08 Celtics team provided us with a glimpse into their dominating future by beginning the season 29-3 and winning twelve of those by fifteen points or more. Of course, they proceeded to win sixty-six games and the title.

Despite that championship and the unexpected Finals appearance last season it seemed that most fans could handle this collaboration because of three very important facts: 1) These were players nearing the ends of their careers, 2) they were acquired by trade, and 3) tying to the first fact, the rest of league was very aware that their title window would be opened for a short amount of time.

Fast forward to November 2010, where the Miami Heat and their trio of all-stars are running rampant throughout the league, winning their previous three games by an average of twenty-seven points, including the demolition of a potent Orlando squad. Even more terrifying is that Wade, Bosh, and James are hovering around thirty minutes each per contest, leaving the fourth period to the Jerry Stackhouse‘s of our world. On the surface, for everyone other than the Miami Heat fan-base, this has not been a pleasant development.

Before I continue I want to say that even before they joined forces I was not a Lebron fan by any stretch of the imagination, nor of Bosh for that matter. I despised Lebron’s arrogance and flirtation with numerous franchises and Bosh’s lack of leadership and toughness, not to mention that neither man held himself accountable for his team’s performance on numerous occasions. Lebron’s “I spoil a lot of people with my play. When you have three bad games in seven years it’s easy to point them out.” line remains one of the greatest cop-out quotes ever uttered by a professional athlete after a big loss. Way to be accountable!

That being said - these Miami Heat are simply not going away anytime soon. That is an alarming realization for me. Since their opening day loss to my beloved Celtics they have run roughshod over the league. Here are a few statistical nuggets to feast on since opening day (stats from www.basketball-reference.com):

  • Defensive Rating: #1 in the NBA (91.7 points per 100 possessions)

  • 15th in PPG despite slow pace (and #6 in offensive rating at 109.8 points per 100 possessions)

  • Holding opponents to just .385 shooting from the field and .311 from downtown.

  • Shooting a lights-out .462 from three-point range!

These are some pretty daunting stats for essentially a brand new squad banking on instant cohesiveness. I’m afraid that, barring injury, fifty games into the season we will be in for quite a show. I’m a big fan of using points-per-100-possessions to gage offensive and defensive efficiency as opposed to per-game numbers and as these guys become more comfortable with one another you will see their pace and offensive numbers elevate even higher. Not to mention that their transition game should be quite a challenging hazard to overcome.

Unfortunately for the rest of the teams out there the situation might only become more daunting. Chris Bosh has not yet been terribly effective (.430 from the floor, missed defensive rotations galore) who will become comfortable before too long. Mike Miller, he of the .480 long-range accuracy, will return before we know it, and goodness knows that Lebron and Wade will at some point lower those turnover numbers (8.2 per game between them) as they assimilate the offense and stop making passes simply to be unselfish. Plus at some point their defensive rotations will begin matching their raw athletic prowess… oh my.

Of course, not everything could go as planned for them. Injuries to either of the three would dampen title hopes, their three-point specialists could fall back to earth (please come back Eddie House!), Lebron and Wade will fight over who choreographs the sideline victory dance, and I will wake up tomorrow morning with $3.2 million in an envelope conveniently located on my desk. Yeah, right….

Seriously though, Wade and Lebron have been playing off of each other pretty well, and watching Lebron play “Magic” the other night and distribute twelve assists to eight different guys was pretty awesome to watch, even if I’m not his biggest fan.

This team, despite its lack of point guard and center depth, was very well constructed by Mr. Riley and company, and whether they put it all together this season or next, the subsequent six seasons’ outlook doesn’t look promising for those with talent not located on South Beach. I hated writing that!

Although I still hold out hope that this season the Celtics or Magic will push them to the limit come playoff time, I am starting to have my doubts.

As I stated previously, I am a perpetual pessimist. Once again I hope to be proven wrong.