Now, through the prism of 80 games in an 82-game prelude to the playoffs, the Heat finally achieved something Sunday -- and wanted no part of taking bows. In the days before the showdown for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, James had called it a "statement game," which Celtics coach Doc Rivers dismissed Sunday as "crap." But when it was over, when the Heat were finished running the defending Eastern Conference champs out of the building in an utterly dominant 100-77 victory, there wasn't even the hint of a celebration.
"It's a regular-season game," Wade said. "We won the game and we move on."
The Heat have things backward, celebrating when they shouldn't and keeping quiet when they should speak up. From the looks of things heading into a potential second-round matchup with the Celtics, the Heat have much more than home-court advantage locked up -- provided they don't stumble in their final two games, at Atlanta and at Toronto. Like the Bulls, whose core still remains from an epic, seven-game loss to Boston in the first round two years ago, the Heat have managed to turn the tables on the proud former champions in green. In the waning days of a regular season that is supposed to be the beginning of basketball season in Boston, the Heat and Bulls have managed to make it feel like the end.
"They're good," Rivers said outside the visiting locker room. "We knew they were going to be good before the year. But we'd like to play them, I can tell you that. And we may have to if we want to go somewhere."
It has become harder and harder to discern where the Celtics are going, unless your answer is, "Nowhere fast." The beating the Heat inflicted on the Celtics Sunday was even more resounding and thorough than the one Derrick Rose and the Bulls put on them Friday night in Chicago. In large part, that can be attributed to the way the Heat are playing now -- fearlessly attacking the rim with their two otherworldly talents, James and Wade, and doing the support work around them that championship teams do. The result was startling, truly startling, coming against a Celtics team that has built a four-year run of superiority on defense, rebounding, and a hard-to-defend, hard-screening offense.
The story was told in numbers -- and in ferocity. Miami dominated the boards with a 15-3 advantage in offensive rebounds, resulting in an 18-3 edge in second-chance points. The Heat, whose weakness all season has been on the interior, outscored the Celtics 44-26 in the paint. Miami's bench, another Achilles' heel, outscored Boston's reserves 32-12.
Then there were perhaps the most important numbers of the afternoon, the zeroes next to Jermaine O'Neal's name: 0 points and 0 rebounds in 14 minutes from Boston's starting center. O'Neal's only contribution was leading with his shoulder on a flagrant foul as James drove to the basket in the second quarter, resulting in pushing, shoving, hurt feelings and three technicals.
"We're not backing down from nobody, and I don't think they are either," James said. "It's a man's game. When you feel like it gets out of control with a foul or a play, you react sometimes."
This is how fast things change in the NBA: The team that couldn't beat Boston, and seemingly never would, suddenly has the Celtics right where they want them heading into the playoffs. Things could change again, of course. The Celtics, who were a .500 team after Christmas last season, could wind up right where they were last June -- 12 minutes away from winning a title.
Or not. Sometimes when you try to flip the switch, nothing happens.
"That's not who we are this year," Rivers said.
And as it turns out, the Heat were right about their struggles against Boston in the three previous regular season meetings, all won by the Celtics, being on them. They promised anyone who would listen in the days leading up to this game that they were a different team. They certainly are, and proved it on the floor.
But something else will become apparent if and when they meet in the playoffs: The Celtics are different, too. It is beyond obvious at this point, and it's getting close to time to panic.
The two key problems cited by Rivers in his postgame interview -- confusion and finger-pointing on defense and poor screen-setting on offense -- pointed to one culprit. That culprit, that answer, can be found patrolling the paint in Oklahoma City.
Kendrick Perkins was the glue that held the defense together, attached at the hip with Kevin Garnett as they moved in tandem and barked instructions to their teammates. That voice is gone, and that presence isn't coming back.
The Celtics' offense? One thing you always knew when you played the Celtics was that you were going to get drilled a half-dozen times on filthy screens by Perkins -- some of them moving, all of them solid and many of them creating the space needed for Paul Pierce and/or Ray Allen to do what they've done throughout Boston's run of dominance.
Allen, who'd ruled his matchup with Wade in the three previous meetings, couldn't get a clean look at a 3-point attempt all afternoon. The Celtics had only one 20-point quarter, and were held under 90 points for the 11th time in 20 games.
"Offensively, we've been in this rut," Allen said.
When it's a quarter here, a letdown there, it's a rut. When it encompasses a quarter of your season, it's a trend.
"Perkins brought a certain element to that team, and it's not there anymore," said Miami's Chris Bosh, who had lost 13 of his last 14 games against the Celtics dating back to March 2007.
The question Rivers left the arena asking himself Sunday night was, How do we get it back? He tried one guy named O'Neal on Sunday, and that didn't work. Up next in the starting center role could be Nenad Krstic, but Rivers hasn't even decided if he'll play all his regulars or rest them in the final two games.
The other guy named O'Neal -- as in Shaq? Rivers isn't delusional enough to count on that fool's gold either.
"I don't know," Rivers said. "I don't know if it's fool's gold, but I don't know what it is because I don't know the answer."
Answers are in very short supply for the Celtics, at the wrong time of year.
