LeBron James' seven-year run in a Cleveland uniform ended on the TD Garden floor last May, with his Cavaliers coming up short against the Celtics in the postseason for the second time.
Dwyane Wade has likewise felt the business end of the Celtics' suffocating team effort, with his final playoff run sans LeBron quickly squashed by the Celtics in the first round last spring.
Chris Bosh went through years of misery against the Celtics north of the border. The C's had Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen for the final three years of Bosh's time with the Toronto Raptors, and the Raps went 1-11 against the men in green over that stretch.
So when Pat Riley and the Miami Heat assembled a trio of superstars this summer who have all historically struggled against the Celtics, it stood to reason that nothing would change. Separately, the C's had each star's respective number; together, it was more of the same.
Through two meetings with the Celtics this season, the Heat have had no luck against the defending East champions. First, an 88-80 loss on the TD Garden floor in the uberhyped season opener, and now another setback for the South Beach dream team. The Celtics' 112-107 win on Thursday night in Miami proved that the C's are still top dogs in the conference.
You look at the box score, and it looks like Allen bested James in a glorified game of one-on-one. The numbers are eye-popping on both sides — 35 points on 13-of-23 shooting and seven 3-pointers for Allen, and a near-triple-double from James of 35 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
But it was more complicated than that. The Celtics' win Thursday night, much like their Oct. 26 opener, much like countless games from past seasons against Cleveland, Miami and Toronto, was the product of unselfish, team-oriented basketball.
A great many of the Celtics' possessions ended in a silky-smooth jumper from Allen, who made all of his first seven attempts from 3-point land against the Heat. But how those possessions began was the more compelling story — the C's moved the ball beautifully, never failing to make the extra pass, always looking for a better shot. As a team, Boston finished with 24 assists and only 10 turnovers, one of its most efficient offensive performances of the season.
A lot of the Celtics' win was about Allen. But a lot of it wasn't.
"Ray was unbelievable," coach Doc Rivers said. "On both ends. I thought he had a great defensive night, and he just shot the ball great. But you know, when you make shots like that, it takes a team. I just thought our ball movement tonight was great, and Ray benefited and he made the shots. We had 20, 30 plays where there were six, seven, eight, nine passes in one possession. The ball was hopping — it didn't stick. That was all we talked about [Wednesday], just in general. We weren't talking about playing Miami — we were talking about how a good Celtic team is a great ball movement team. Tonight it was unbelievable. They found guys to the last second. They just kept looking, and it was terrific."
Slight second-half dropoff notwithstanding, this is as good a team win as the Celtics could have hoped for. The effort was there from start to finish, the C's didn't shy away from an aggressive LeBron, and on the scoreboard, the C's led from wire to wire. They started with a 2-0 lead and never looked back.
Rivers doesn't believe in statement wins or "measuring stick" wins, especially not in November with 73 games still to play. In fact, he's not even totally satisfied with the Celtics' impressive victory.
"Offensively, we were really good, but defensively, we're not very happy," the coach said. "As a coach, you always find something [to criticize]. But what I liked about us, and I'm not measuring us against anybody, but we really hung in there tonight. We had foul trouble, we had limited bigs, but everybody just stepped in. Everybody did their job."
Through these first two weeks, this is what the Heat have lacked — a complete, unified team effort to win big games.
For three years, going on four, that's been Boston's speciality. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh know that all too well.
