We spent the whole season so focused on impending free agency that rather than monitoring each ebb and flow and stat, we evaluated everything in terms of Lebron's future, Wade's future, Beasley's future, and so on -- to the point that we're asking ourselves for the first time if the Heat can beat the Celtics in seven on the very day it matters most.
The answer depends on just how angry they've made Dwyane Wade, so signs point to "yes:"
"The commentators [in last week's Cleveland-Boston game] were already talking about Boston in the second round, whether they're going to meet Orlando or Cleveland. Certain people forget about the first round. So that's pretty much like you're (crapping) on our team when you say that. So we'll take that and use it as motivation to go out there and prove that even though we're underdogs, we're going to be a team that's going to be reckoned with for seven games."
Mwuahaha!
Still, it's awfully unnerving to think about how O'Neal was outclassed in the regular season by the Celtics' Kendrick Perkins, or how he's missed 7 of the last 13 games with injuries.
Or how Mike Beasley was positively befuddled by screaming asparagus Kevin Garnett.
Or how Quentin Richardson and Carlos Arroyo can't touch Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo, or how even the Celtic's bench are household names while Heat starters could wander through Times Square untouched.
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Or how the Heat lost to Boston all three times during the regular season.
But at the same time, the aging Celtics have been faltering and bobbing about .500 while the Heat are emerging from a trying season with an 18-4 surge. The Heat are playing together. They're pushing through legal trouble, rehab stints, desertion, illness, and divorce. And most importantly, they're underdogs who aren't afraid of their oppenent.
Who cares if 10 out of 10 ESPN experts say they can't do it? Haters gonna hate. Who cares if they don't have home court advantage? Just geography. It may take a miracle, but no one is better at those than Wade, who even a levels less than 2006-Era Angry still posesses the power to change a series single-handedly.
Call us crazy, but after a season of suprises we'll believe these surging Heat will lose in the first round only when we see their bodies shipped back covered in clover.
The Heat take on the Celtics in Boston tonight for Game 1 of the series at 8 p.m. on Sun Sports and ESPN.
