Miami Heat: Hot factors vs. Kyrie Irving’s drama-filled Boston Celtics
By Trey Flynn
The 22-22 Miami Heat are facing off against the 28-18 Boston Celtics tomorrow night, hoping to scratch the playoff surface, possibly squeezing out a solid win against a top-ten team in the league.
The Boston Celtics have had serious recent struggles against the Miami Heat, losing to a injury-riddled Heat squad 115-99, only last week.
In that game, we saw Dwyane Wade take over late for a Heat team in need of a late-offensive star. However, since that win, Miami has struggled as a 2-2 team getting throttled by the Milwaukee Bucks and losing a late-game thriller to the Blake Griffin-led Detroit Pistons.
And the issues are not just in South Florida, even though the Celtics are on a 3-game winning streak, Boston is 3-3 in the past six games, treading normalcy as one of the better teams in the league.
Fortunately for the Heat, they are also coming off a win. Unfortunately, that win was against a Chicago Bulls team on Saturday night that had sore arms because their head coach Jim Boylen loves his push-ups. So both the Heat and Celtics are going through their ups-and-downs right now and it could be a topsy-turvy game in Boston.
Not to mention, Kyrie Irving has created all kinds of controversy on a Boston Celtics team that seems like they need anything else besides drama, via Chris Forsberg of NBC Boston:
"“The responsibility of being the best in the world and leading your team is something that is not meant for many people. … Only few are meant for it, or chosen for it, and I feel like the best person to call was him.”"
If you have been sleeping under a rock, Irving has been criticising the young talented role players on the Celtics and has complained how difficult it has been to play with guys that have “lacked” experience of what it takes to be on a championship team. Which, in a way, is a slap in the face to a Celtics team that was one game away from the NBA Finals last season with an injured Irving not playing one game in the postseason last year.
Therefore, for Irving to call LeBron James and to apologize over the phone, and tell everyone publicly, shows the rest of his team how low he must think of them. Objectively, this quote makes Irving look like the most indirect teammate to have, essentially telling the other players that they aren’t ready for success and what it takes to be “great.”
Oh well, every team has their own drama, and Boston should ultimately be fine.
As for projected lineups and injuries going into Monday night, look no further.
Miami Heat Projected Starting Lineup:
- PG, Justise Winslow
- SG, Josh Richardson
- SF, Rodney McGruder
- PF, James Johnson
- C, Hassan Whiteside
Injuries: PG, Goran Dragic will be OUT
Boston Celtics Projected Starting Lineup:
- PG, Kyrie Irving
- SG, Marcus Smart
- SF, Jayson Tatum
- PF, Marcus Morris
- C, Al Horford
Injuries: SF, Gordon Hayward PROBABLE (personal); PF, Jabari Bird OUT
Tune in to watch the Heat vs. the Celtics Monday night at 6 PM Eastern.