That, quite obviously, won't happen, as the team with two of the best players in a league where talent always wins out will be just fine.
That doesn't mean watching the mighty Heat struggle wasn't fun to watch.
Tuesday night's season opener in Boston showed two teams looking like they were playing the first game of a long NBA season. Both the Celtics and Heat were a bit sloppy and made plenty of mistakes. The difference was that the Celtics have three years of playing together to fall back on, while the Heat will be figuring that part out on the fly.
If there were two reasons for the Heat to be worried, it may be coaching and Chris Bosh.
On the coaching part, the funniest 15 seconds of the entire night might have been when TNT aired Erik Spoelstra's inspiring talk to his team after falling behind early. "We got the jitters out," Spoelstra said, pausing for a good five seconds before adding, "Let's make a move." Great coaching. Needless to say, it won't exactly quiet the murmurs of Pat Riley taking over at some point this year. Spoelstra may want to decline wearing that mic in future games.
Second, while Chris Bosh can dominate against lesser big men in the league, he can be neutralized against top-tier (if againg) players like Kevin Garnett. There were even times when Glen Davis, who's a good two inches shorter than Bosh, won some physical battles down low. The fact that Bosh isn't exactly the type of player worthy of being lumped into a "Three Kings" nickname isn't groundbreaking news, nor will it kill the Heat this season. It may prove crucial come playoff time, though.
But for now, the reason that no Heat fans (and I'm sure there are a lot of them nowadays) should be worried is that Dwyane Wade was so unbelievably off his game Tuesday that he actually hurt the Heat. That simply won't happen more than a handful of times in the 82-game season.
As the TNT crew of Marv Albert, Steve Kerr and Mike Fratello reminded the viewing audience 3 million times during the game, Wade missed almost the entirety of the preseason thanks to a hamstring issue and a long child custody battle in court.
And in the first quarter, Wade looked like Joe Nobody at local YMCA on a Sunday morning. He went 0-for-4, got whistled for an offensive foul and had a two other turnovers in the first 10 minutes of his season. It may be the worst stretch of his entire campaign.
After the game, there wasn't too much overreaction, yet TNT analyst Charles Barkley and ESPN analyst Michael Wilbon both said that the Heat could not operate with Carlos Arroyo at point guard.
To summarize: The Heat signed the three biggest available names this summer in Wade, LeBron James and Bosh, yet they lost on opening night because of their no-name, 31-year-old point guard. Good call.
No, the Heat will be fine. James almost single-handedly won Tuesday night's game, so just imagine when he'll have Wade operating at full speed alongside him. That's a frightening proposition.
But for now, let's all leave Carlos Arroyo alone.
Even at 0-1, are the Heat still a team to be feared in the Eastern Conference, or are they in for a disappointing season? Share your thoughts below.
