Matchups. Schemes. Execution. Depth. All played roles in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between Boston and Miami — secondary ones behind the drama.
“It’s personal,” Heat forward LeBron James said beforehand.
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“It would be personal for me,” Boston forward Paul Pierce had concurred.
In the end, Pierce is the one who took it personally and took himself out of the game while James took home a victory.
The damage had already been done before Pierce earned himself a second technical foul that resulted in his ejection with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. It was only 58 seconds earlier that he had gotten off lightly after smushing his face into James Jones‘ cheek following a flagrant foul by the Heat reserve. The head-butt lite ended with a double technical foul, but it could have gotten Pierce sent to the showers all by itself.
The Celtics, rusty from a week-long layoff after their first-round sweep of New York, needed an emotional spark, and no player embodies their pride and spirit more than the guy who was there before the Boston Three Party. But instead of rattling the Heat, Pierce, who was 6-for-14 with four turnovers, flexed and jawed at Dwyane Wade and couldn’t believe what had happened to him when Ed Malloy threw him out. But pulling his jersey over his head as he walked down the tunnel isn’t the act of someone who has been wronged — that’s an admission that it’s painful to face the truth.
Meanwhile, with a powerful calm, James (22 points, six rebounds, five assists, two steals, two blocks) let the Celtics clobber him on the break and around the rim while allowing Wade (38 points, five assists) to carry the team that has always been his, showing up just when Wade needed him to finish the kind of athletic catch-and-slam alley-oop or block from behind that he had come to South Beach to perform.
The series is so far from over that the emotions are barely simmering. But with the first round complete, James and the Heat are the ones playing it cool.
