"Biggest Opening Night in NBA History" Hot For Lakers and Celtics, Ice Cold For the Heat

The Lakers ring ceremony and banner raising was incredibly well done, showcasing not just a repeat championship team, but a large group of family and friends acknowledging each others' talents.

Today, the 2010-11 NBA season kicked off with 3 games, the Miami Heat @ Boston Celtics, the Phoenix Suns @ Portland Trailblazers, and the Houston Rockets @ Los Angeles Lakers. Last season if someone told you that the Celtics would beat the Heat or Lebron's team, the Trailblazers would beat the Suns at home, and the Lakers would beat the Rockets, would you have been surprised? Of course not, and that's exactly what happened in the season opener. Erik Spoelstra utterly lacked the qualities to be a head coach (unchanged), Lebron James had to bail out his team to not be completely embarrassed by a clearly superior team (unchanged), the Trailblazers dominated at home (unchanged), the Suns lacked defense (unchanged), the Rockets relied far too heavily on their smaller players to score (unchanged), and the Lakers won a game in dramatic fashion thanks to a play by a non-black player (unchanged). Sure, names have changed across all 6 teams (less so on the Trailblazers), but on the first day it quickly became apparent that nothing has changed.

The Boston Celtics made 2 notable moves in the off-season, signing the two O'Neals (unrelated), Jermaine and Shaquille. While questionable how helpful either would be, Jermaine demonstrated that when he isn't being a hothead he can still be a quality bench player, while Shaq showed that age may be making him run slower, but he is still 7'1" and over 300 pounds. Even more impressively, Shaq held Chris Bosh to under 10 points while also getting 7 rebounds and 9 points all while playing under 20 minutes. The big question though is "does Shaq's presence even matter?" With Kendrick Perkins out for a few more months from his injury in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Shaq and Glen Davis are going to be playing center to make sure the Celtics' record starts and stays excellent.

If the season opener can predict how a team will do for the rest of the season, then the Miami Heat are already a colossal failure. Of course, it's completely unfair to judge a team by their 1st game, but when Lebron James says "this is a work in progress," he isn't kidding. With all the star bench players hired in the off-season, clearing salary cap room to hire Lebron and Bosh, and making sure to keep Dwyane Wade, the Heat as a team failed in every aspect... with the notable exception of Lebron James who performed at his normal level other than more turnovers than usual due to sloppy play in the 1st half. If the Miami Heat want to not only win games, but win a championship, they need to fire Erik Spoelstra and replace him with Pat Riley who will be able to decide a far more proper substitution pattern.

Although slow to start, Lebron James eventually showcased exactly why he is the reigning 2-time MVP while Dwyane Wade utterly failed to make any impact and Chris Bosh was outplayed by 38-year-old Shaquille O'Neal.

The Lakers began their night by receiving their championship rings and raising their 16th championship banner in one of the better championship ceremonies I've seen in a long time. Still high on emotion from last season and the ceremony, the Lakers played pretty badly in the 1st half only to come roaring back in the 2nd half. The biggest question asked by fans in the offseason was probably "why did we get rid of Jordan Farmar to sign Steve Blake?" Blake managed to answer every question by scoring the game winning 3-pointer with a pass from Kobe that at first appeared to be planned for Pau Gasol. By keeping their starting five of Fisher, Bryant, Artest, Gasol, and Bynum, the 6th man Odom, a stronger bench replacing DJ Mbenga, Jordan Farmar, Adam Morrison, and Josh Powell with Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, and Theo Ratliff, and the 2 rookie gold mines of Derrick Caracter and Devin Ebanks, the Lakers have all but assured that not only will they reach the NBA Finals for the fourth time in a row, but will more than likely win yet another three-peat.

The hidden gem among the big names however, was the Houston Rockets. Yao Ming is back to a team that is very different than the one he last played on in the 2009 playoffs. No longer is Yao the center-piece, but part of a larger scheme excellently coached by Rick Adelman, probably the greatest coach in recent memory to not have ever won a championship. Even with Yao on the bench replaced by Brad Miller, formerly of the Chicago Bulls, the Rockets operate as a well-oiled machine. Later this season when Yao is better conditioned after having missed all of last season and hopefully playing far more than 24 minutes, the Rockets will be a serious contender in the West, far more than the unbelievably over-hyped Mavericks that always fail to deliver or the Thunder that made no move to get a better center in the offseason.

They have some kinks to work out, but the Rockets showed they are still a threat even without Yao.

Assuming nothing changes between now and the end of the season, the Lakers and Celtics are going to be playing a rematch Finals. Of course, some team that is rebuilding could shock everyone with a key trade in the middle of the season and take them to the brink of a championship. Stranger things have happened.