,"What does the 2 seed guarantee you?" said James. "It doesn't guarantee you win the series. ... I'm a prime example. The last two years, I have been the first overall seed of everybody, all 16 teams, and it didn't pay off for us."
Definitely. Last year, the Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Boston Celtics, as many claimed James "quit." After that, he would go on to sign with Miami on July 6th, and here he is: Going for a No. 2 seed with his Heat over a Boston team that has basically been haunting James his whole career.
Miami's kryptonite has been Boston this whole season. And they are here right now trying to get the second seed. Even though it won't guarantee much, Miami still would like it, and it would just be perfect getting it over a Boston team that has been a true rival for them all year.
"It doesn't guarantee anything," Wade said Friday. "But we want to put ourselves in the best position as we can. You're in a better position in two versus a three. It's easy, we learned that as a kid: one, two, three. That's what us and Boston are playing for. The game on Sunday will show that."
And it will show a lot. Mike Miller is looking for revenge after missing a wide-open three that could have sent a Miami-Boston game into overtime. Miller thinks of Boston as the demon, and he has to beat them.
“And we've got to slay that demon, so to speak,” Miller said.
Boston started the Big Three trend, and they have gotten a lot of advantages out of it. Miami has now followed, looking to get more success and showing they are the better Big Three, or "Monster Team" as Chris Bosh likes to say it.
“I don't want to put a tag on it and say they're the monster team,” Bosh said. “We're the monster team. That's how we feel going into each and every game. So there is a clash there. We want what they've gotten before. It's real important to beat them. For one, for our confidence.”
Miami knows they can dominate the Eastern Conference. They need to put the series losses against Chicago and Boston behind them and be set for the playoffs.
But Miami is a different team now since they have last faced Boston. They are working the pieces better together and are just simply playing better. The addition of Mike Bibby really helps this squad.
“And we have a little bit more experience together,” Bosh said. “We have more of an attack. We were shooting more jump shots back then. We didn't put as much pressure on the rim as we do now. It will be interesting to see what happens [Sunday]. We want to attack the rim and play our style.”
James wants to treat the Celtics like what happened to him when he started out his career. When he was first with the Cavaliers, his team always lost to the Detroit Pistons. It was just tough. But LeBron recalled that he finally got the Pistons' monkey behind their back, beating them in the 2007 NBA Playoffs to advance to the Finals.
“After that moment, we just started to dominate that team,” James said. “I feel the same way for myself, and from watching D-Wade [against Boston] before I got here. We just have to keep going, keep grinding. There are games in the regular season that are more meaningful than others. There are statement games when you try to make statements. We look at the game Sunday as a big test for us.”
The Heat alone, before LeBron and Bosh, have struggled with Boston since they formed their Big Three. This is going to be a big game, as it shows who is the stronger team as of right now. And with that, Miami is most likely to be facing a Boston team in their way into the playoffs.
“We know more than likely, they're going to be a team we'll see again to get to the Finals,” Mario Chalmers said. “And you've got to get at least one win in the regular season, so we we know what we can do and can't do against them -- to get a little confidence.”
Miller has his reasons ready for this game.
“It's important for a couple of reasons,” Miller said. “Obviously, we want to get that No. 2 seed. One of the biggest ways we can do that is win out. The bottom line is we need to go in there blazing. Play like it's a playoff game. And if we don't win, at least you've put everything out there. But we ain't focusing on not winning. Nah. So we've got to play.”
This is going to be huge, but as a Miami fan, I have the Heat winning. They are a different team.
Come on Miami.
Slay the demon.
