And what's more, it was a win over a Heat team that's still growing with each passing day. The more Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh learn about how to coexist, the better their team will be.
"Oh, they'll be so much better," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said after Tuesday's win. "Number one, Wade, I don't know if he's healthy or not. He did look explosive down the stretch, but you don't miss as much as you miss with him, and have rhythm. You could see his rhythm, I thought as the game went on, get better. But yeah, they'll be much better.
"Hopefully," he added, "we will too."
After Tuesday's loss, 88-80 at the hands of a Celtics team that shot the lights out down the stretch, the Heat were quick to get on message. They all emphasized the word "process." They conceded that building a championship team couldn't happen overnight, and that star power notwithstanding, they still had a lot of work to do. Tuesday's loss reaffirmed that — every out-of-sync possession and every broken play proved that the Heat weren't quite there yet.
"This is a work in progress," James said. "We all know Rome wasn't built in one day. It's going to take time, and we understand that. We just have to keep making progress every day, and we know we'll get better."
"We know what's going on," added Bosh. "We know that a lot of people are watching and a lot of people are really putting us under the microscope. We know that. When we turn on the TV, we see that a lot of people are talking about us, and that's part of the game. That's what it is. But we knew it was going to be like that. At the end of the day, we just have to settle down. We just have to play."
Ideally, the preseason would have been a time for Miami's big three to coalesce and master the art of unselfishness. But it didn't work out that way — when Wade strained his hamstring on opening night of the preseason Oct. 5, that threw a wrench in their plans. Rather than go into Tuesday's Boston showdown mentally prepared, the Heat had to learn on the fly how to play together.
Things were shaky. The Heat looked too unselfish at times, as if they didn't know when the extra pass was one pass too many. No one was ready to step up and hit the big shot — except LeBron, late in the third quarter, once it was a tad too late. As for Wade, he took a long while to get warmed up.
"LeBron told me this was my first preseason game," Wade said. "So we were just getting a little bit out of rhythm. The continuity is still not there yet."
It almost wasn't a fair fight for the Heat — they'd just assembled their superteam this past July, and they were up against a Celtics machine that's been well-oiled since the summer of 2007. The Celtics came in unified and prepared — the Heat stumbled in blindfolded, feeling their way around.
"You could see the fact that they haven't necessarily been polished, or gotten the whole chemistry thing down yet," said Kevin Garnett. "But they will. In order for them to get better, they're going to have to continue to go through rough days, dog days. That's part of it. Lord knows we went through ours, and we learned from it. I'm pretty sure they'll do the same."
So it goes. The Heat are still working out the kinks, and it's not surprising that they open their season 0-1. They'll have plenty of chances at redemption in the days ahead — traveling to Philadelphia on Wednesday night, then home against the Magic on Friday, then on the road again to visit New Jersey on Sunday afternoon.
It's a long grind, and it's only just beginning.
"This game is just one of 82," Wade said. "I'm sorry if everyone thought we were going 82-0. That just ain't happening."
