NBA Betting Preview: Miami Heat at Boston Celtics

Added on Oct 26, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

The NBA season starts tonight and the big matchup of opening night is the regular season debut of LeBron James and the Miami Heat. They’ll face a tough game right out of the chute as they head to Boston’s TD BankNorth Garden to take on the Celtics. This game will be nationally televised on TNT in the US.

Miami Heat at Boston Celtics
October 26, 2010 4:35 PM Pacific

The Miami Heat enter the season in the unusual position of being the favorite to win the NBA title despite the current lineup having no regular season experience playing together. While they’ll likely pull everything together well before the postseason, its unlikely that they’ll be on the same page here on national TV in a very tough venue against a proud Celtics team. We don’t think Boston much likes the idea of being the ‘supporting cast’ to the LeBron James show on opening night and this is a perfect opportunity for last year’s Eastern Conference Champions to make a statement.

The Celtics will be without Kendrick Perkins for awhile as he recovers from surgery, but have a couple of good options at center where they’ve added Shaquille O’Neal and Jermaine O’Neal. Shaq is expected to get the start tonight and while he’s not the dominant force he once was he’s a very good presence down low and a difficult matchup from a physical standpoint. The Celtics’ defense manhandled LeBron’s Cavs in the playoffs last year and while he may have more ‘weapons’ with the Heat that could be negated by their inexperience playing together.

We’ll be looking to play against Miami in the early part of the season–the public will be all over them, but they may take some time to get used to playing together. At the same time, every team in the league will be gunning for them–especially the other championship contenders. They won’t get any team ‘looking past’ them and that’s a tough situation in which to play. We’ll look for the Celtics to clamp down defensively and send the Heat to an 0-1 start to the year.

Bet Boston Celtics +1 over Miami Heat