But reveling as Miami bumped along its learning curve felt a little hollow, and empty, and stupid. Six-year-old cyclists aren't wimpy when they actually need their training wheels and future NBA championship contenders -- Portland Trail Blazers even the love-them-or-hate-them variety that the Heat figure to become -- aren't failures for struggling a month into their collective existence.Portland Trail Blazers vs Los Angeles Clippers Live
However astonishingly or distastefully it came to be, these guys have been together about a minute and a half. Who trades in a new car halfway home from the showroom? And no, there isn't a For Sale sign in front of Eric Spoelstra's house yet.
Los Angeles Clippers "What I told the team was, it was going to be a process like this," said Spoelstra, who either is remarkably self-assured given the stakes of all this or a master thespian in appearing so. "I know there are a lot of expectations and a lot of pressure out there, but we have our own timetable. ... I already imagine we'll be much better tomorrow."Portland Trail Blazers vs Los Angeles Clippers Live
Ouch. That's some serious developmental whiplash. But the fact is, after reserve James Jones hit a flat-footed 3-pointer from the right corner to make it 68-64 with eight minutes left, the building got as quiet as if Cleveland were in town with James on a roll or Wade had caught fire for last year's Heat. Only now Miami had both of them, and Chris Bosh to boot. All mocking ceased.Portland Trail Blazers
Let's face it, if there was going to be any clash in this series in which Boston figured to have the Heat's number, this one was it. The Celtics were at home, their old legs as fresh as they'll be all season, Los Angeles Clippers with most of their pieces in place for more than three years now and determined not to get marginalized so soon by these insta-team upstarts. Did I type f-r-e-s-h? Since bringing together Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in July 2007, the Celtics are 72-10 in games played before Christmas.Portland Trail Blazers vs Los Angeles Clippers
Miami, by contrast, was playing in a hostile environment, had been thrown together on the fly and remains all parts, no whole. Wade in particular still was hobbled by a hamstring injury that wiped out his preseason.
And still it came down to the last eight minutes, to Glenn Davis rumbling inside for a layup, to a pancaked Pierce returning from a collision with James to sink two clutch shots from the arc and, at the end of a solid possession with less than a minute left, to Allen draining a 3-pointer from the right corner as James soared at him. That made it 86-80.