IN 2010, BOSTON ousted Dwyane Wade in the first round and LeBron James in the second round.
A year later, Wade and James were teammates and turned the tables, sending the Celtics into the off-season.
Here comes the tiebreaker.
Advertisement
Celtics-Heat, one more time — with a berth in the NBA finals as the reward.
For the fifth time in seven years, it’ll be Boston or Miami winning the Eastern Conference championship. Game 1 of that title series is tonight in Miami, with the Heat saying it almost seemed predestined that they would be seeing the Celtics again, and Boston’s perspective being that the team in green is exactly where it expected to be as well.
“Inevitable. It’s the matchup the game of basketball wants,” Wade said yesterday afternoon. “Obviously, with the Chicago Bulls being out, this is the biggest match-up the Eastern Conference can have. So we accept the challenge and we look forward to the series.”
Added Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: “Was there any doubt that it’d be us and Boston?”
Well, maybe a little.
Spoelstra watched Boston’s Game 7 East semi-final matchup against Philadelphia without a notepad, not wanting to start game planning until the winner was decided. And that didn’t come until late in the night, when Rajon Rondo — forced into the closer’s role after Paul Pierce fouled out with 4:16 left — delivered time and again down the stretch, carrying the Celtics to an 85-75 closeout victory.
“This is a good time right now,” Celtics forward Kevin Garnett said.
“This is the cream of the cream. This is what it’s all about, you know, conference finals. We definitely didn’t like the way we left last year. So we’ll see what happens, man. We’ll see what happens. Let’s get it on.”
Miami beat Boston in five games in last year’s East semi-finals, and the Celtics took three of four games from Miami this season. Both sides cautioned against reading too much into any of those results.
NBA play-offs preview: Boston-Miami showdown was inevitable, says Wade
IN 2010, BOSTON ousted Dwyane Wade in the first round and LeBron James in the second round.
A year later, Wade and James were teammates and turned the tables, sending the Celtics into the off-season.
Here comes the tiebreaker.
Celtics-Heat, one more time — with a berth in the NBA finals as the reward.
For the fifth time in seven years, it’ll be Boston or Miami winning the Eastern Conference championship. Game 1 of that title series is tonight in Miami, with the Heat saying it almost seemed predestined that they would be seeing the Celtics again, and Boston’s perspective being that the team in green is exactly where it expected to be as well.
“Inevitable. It’s the matchup the game of basketball wants,” Wade said yesterday afternoon. “Obviously, with the Chicago Bulls being out, this is the biggest match-up the Eastern Conference can have. So we accept the challenge and we look forward to the series.”
Added Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: “Was there any doubt that it’d be us and Boston?”
Well, maybe a little.
Spoelstra watched Boston’s Game 7 East semi-final matchup against Philadelphia without a notepad, not wanting to start game planning until the winner was decided. And that didn’t come until late in the night, when Rajon Rondo — forced into the closer’s role after Paul Pierce fouled out with 4:16 left — delivered time and again down the stretch, carrying the Celtics to an 85-75 closeout victory.
“This is a good time right now,” Celtics forward Kevin Garnett said.
Miami beat Boston in five games in last year’s East semi-finals, and the Celtics took three of four games from Miami this season. Both sides cautioned against reading too much into any of those results.
Even Will Ferrell gets a little bit intimidated when Roy Keane walks into a dressing-room
While you were sleeping: Spurs fly past Thunder in NBA play-offs
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Basketball Boston Celtics Dwayne Wade Eastern conference Hoops Lebron James Miami Heat NBA