Opening Night!

Finally! The night has come where SportsCenter replaces slow rolling ground balls with double-crossover, spin move, 360 windmill dunks! Opening night in the NBA is always great because it marks the one time people are really interested in basketball until the All-Star break. Admit it, you're excited to see LeBron, Wade and Chris Bush...Bash...Bosh...I don't know, he's not important...excited to see those three walk out on that WWE stage with all kinds of fireworks with the mellifluous sounds of Three-6-Mafia filling the arena. You'll scowl when you see Kobe recieve his fifth ring and make out with it for a couple minutes before throwing it away because he doesn't care about last year. You'll smile when you see Steve Nash step on the court just because he's so damn good and despite the fact that his time probably sucks, he's still going to give it 100% night in and night out.

How about a prediction:

Miami vs Boston
 Oh snap! The defending Eastern Conference champions are matched up with the Miami "Already won the championship for the next ten years" Heat! This is an awesome first game. First off, the Celtics are going to hate the Heat. I mean, they fight through injuries, criticism, team chemistry issues and all kinds of problems last year, make it the Finals, take LA to game 7 only to lose in the final minutes AND STILL they are second fiddle to the Heat.

 This team is gritty, proud and still very good. Also, it seems as if they are very rested up. A healthy Pierce and Garnett will only help Ray Allen get on track and Rajon Rondo is going to be very good regardless. Let's not forget the Big Leprechaun!  Shaq is not a fan of the Heat, he has played with both LeBron and D-Wade and remember, Shaq dropped that amazing "Chris Bosh is the Ru-Paul of big men" joke last year, which may have been the most underrated joke of all time.

I really don't see a way to predict this game. Last year, people wrote the Celtics off and didn't think they would amount to much. This year, the media has honed in on the Celtics and Heat being the top dogs in the East with the Magic as a darkhorse. So, maybe we're putting to much pressure on Boston this year?

The game: No one is going to be capable of stopping LeBron. If they put Paul Pierce on him, the Celtics can pretty much expect Pierce to completely die on the offensive end. Just look at the playoffs last year, same situation. The Celtics were eventually able to "stop" LeBron (and I mean "stop" because if you think LeBron from games 5 and 6 of that series was the same LeBron from the previous two seasons then you are out of your damn mind) by playing solid team defense. Unfortunatley for Boston, LeBron now has Wade and Bosh. I think Wade will be good, but I also feel like he's going to get injured chasing Ray Allen around.

Bosh versus Garnett is going to be good. I really feel like it's a bit of an even match up. Both finesse big men who can hit the outside shot and put the ball on the floor. I think Garnett is going to try to intimidate Bosh a little bit and he will probably wind up coming out the "winner." Garnett did a great job of guarding Pau Gasol in the Finals and is still great defensively.

This game is impossible to predict. ESPN's SportsNation poll has the Celtics winning. For me, not seeing the Heat play together, Wade's hamstring, Mike Miller being out and the Celtics just being a good team, I say Celtics win, but really have no idea, nor do I care.
CELTICS WIN
Boston 98, Miami 93