Are the Heat scared of the Celtics?

[Neurotic Guy]

Judging from their demeanor when down by 13 in the 4th or down by 7 with time dwindling, I'd say the Heat are scared of no one. They think (and they are not delusional) that they are the best team in the league and that they can dominate whenever they need to.  Over the course of 7 games, they have no reason to scared of anyone.

Lebron becomes a man among boys when the time is right. Imagine you playing against a group of 8th graders.  You may hang with them for a while, feed them the ball, etc -- but anytime you want, you can turn it up. That's Lebron. No need for him to worry. 

[Celtics4ever]

I think they dread playing us but I don't know why the refs got out their whistles and saved the streak!

[GreenEnvy]

I think they dread playing us but I don't know why the refs got out their whistles and saved the streak!

You don't know why? Really?


The Heat do not fear us, but we may be the only team in the East or West they would not mind avoiding. SAS or MEM can cause problems in the finals, but they aren't worried about either. Celtics could take so much out of them and they know it.

[scaryjerry]

The Heat fear five teams:

(1) Celtics
(2) Spurs
(3) Thunder
(4) Nuggets
(5) Grizzlies

in no particular order.

The heat fear no one...I think this is a ridiculous notion

[celtics2]

Seems to be a hot topic...one that I've said.

We give the Heat probably their most competition. We have PP and KG...now we have a Jeff Green.

Are they scared of us?

I'd like to say yes, but at the same time, they've booted us out the playoffs twice (even though we've won the regular season). We given them 40+ point performances and still lost.

What do you think? Why?

the facts speak for themselves. These rumors of Heat being frightened of Celtics are wishful thinking. I think they view the Celts as a amuzing.

[Tr1boy]

yes they are. At least the respect is there, maybe that will not be given towards other teams. Eric Spolstra stated before they played us "give them the respect they deserve".

Wade and especially Lebron look traumatized still by what we did to them before in the playoffs. Lebron looks crazy out there when he plays us and looks like he wants to win so bad like he needs to take a whizz.

All and all a fun matchup, but we got to start being on the winning side of things

[Celtics17]

I am not sure that scared is the correct word but if you as if the Heat would rather not play the Celts early in the playoffs, or at all, then if they replied honestly their answer would be that they would rather avoid the Celtics.

Very few teams have what it takes to compete with Miami at all, especially in a seven game series, but the Celtics do.

[pearljammer10]

I am so sure they are scared of us but I think we certainly play with their psyche and their mentality. You can see Wade and James be completely rattled at points when they play us. Games where they just start jacking long fadeaway jumpers and go against their game plans.

I think they get even more frustrated now that Bradley and Green are here to guard Wade and James.

[StartOrien]

I don't think the Heat are afraid of the Celtics, but I think the Celtics are in a limited class of teams that think they can beat the Heat.

[slamtheking]

Heat aren't scared of anyone right now.  if anything they'll play with more effort for the teams they respect like the C's. 

that's not even accounting for their ability to count on the refs to bail them out of a losing effort. 

[mkogav]

Heat aren't scared of anyone right now.  if anything they'll play with more effort for the teams they respect like the C's. 

100% agree. They are the defending champ who have the best player on the planet. They fear no one. Why should they?

Mk

[kozlodoev]

Letting someone come back from 17 points down does not exactly make you scary. The better question is are the Celtics scared of the Heat -- because we dwindled pretty badly down the stretch.

[celtics2]

Letting someone come back from 17 points down does not exactly make you scary. The better question is are the Celtics scared of the Heat -- because we dwindled pretty badly down the stretch.

The Celts should not be allowed to watch the clock.  We have become over the years the biggest folding act, a glass jaw team. I can't forget the miserable way we lose games. Game after game after game. Coaching doesn't have anything to do with that huh??

[Tgro]

Paul Pierce might’ve put it best:

“There’s always positives from every game, but you've got to look at negative things when you play against the best team in the NBA right now. It’s always going to come down to the little things, and those things really add up at the end of the game when you have a two-point loss.”

First, Paul, let me say thank you to you. Thank you for saying what I’ve been saying all season, and thank you for pointing out what many Cs fans have been ignoring all season: The little things matter. It’s not that these guys simply miss a free throw here and commit the occasional turnover there; they usually don’t lose because they botch a play at the end of a game, or because the refs make a bad call in crunch time; it’s the accumulated weight of numerous mistakes, all the straws that lead to the straw that breaks the camel’s back, it’s 9 (NINE!) missed free throws and 20 turnovers (that’s 40–60 possible points) when you have very little margin for error.

So they nearly beat the Miami Heat last night.

Big. Freakin. Deal. The reality is this: The Boston Celtics might be the biggest speed bump these Miami Heat will face this postseason, but they’re still nothing more than a speed bump. And that’s not going to change unless they get their heads in the game from tip-off to final whistle.

This has really been it in a nutshell. You look back at the last couple of years and especially the game the other night and it comes down to in order for the Celtics to win, they have to play perfectly. The Heat don't necessarily have to.

Game after game, we fight them tooth and nail. Look like we are going to beat them the whole way and in the end, we fold like a $5 Beach Chair.

We made too many mistakes coming down the stretch. We had them beat and just couldn't put them away. Couldn't make free throws, sat Jeff Green on the bench too long in the 4th quarter, kept making turnovers, couldn't stop the comeback. And in the end, The Heat won and have been gloating about it on ESPN at nauseum ever since.

The Celtics are the team the Heat LOVE to beat maybe the most. And until we give them a taste of their own medicine and make them go home with their tails between their legs, they have nothing to fear from us. It seems the other way around. We play the whole game kicking their butts and with 8 minutes to go, we get scared and say "Hey, this is the Heat, we should be losing". We just made too many mistakes.

I personally think as we are, with KG and the rest of the squad playing their A-game for 48 minutes, we beat the Heat each and every time. We should be undefeated against the Heat. But we let them off the hook in the end every time and the Heat just have no reason to fear us until we give them a reason. I think we can do it. Especially with KG back and we play that way again (without the mistakes), we beat the crap out of them. But we have to stop succumbing to the pressure of "Oh no, it's the Heat". When we play like the Celtics. We beat them every time.

I'm REALLY EXCITED about our chances against them. But we've got to clean up the sloppy play when it matters the most.

[Bombastic Jones]

I thought this graphic was cool;