(Best E Casino) - The NBA champion
Boston Celtics tip-off the 2008-09 season Tuesday when they welcome the
Cleveland Cavaliers and superstar LeBron James to TD Banknorth Garden.
The game is a rematch of an exciting seven game Eastern Conference semifinal set last season where the Celtics outlasted the Cavs en route to capturing the club's record 17th NBA title and first since 1986.
James scored 45 points in the decisive Game 7 but Boston's Paul Pierce took over the game down the stretch and finished with 41 points in the Celtics 97-92 victory
Boston then went on to get the best of Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in six games to win the NBA Finals.
The victory capped an amazing turnaround for the franchise. Just a year earlier, Boston, which finished 2007-08 with a 66-16 mark, looked like a moribund club, winning just 24 games. The 42-game regular season improvement set a new standard for the best single-season turnaround in NBA history.
The "Boston Three Party" of Pierce, the most unselfish superstar in the game, Kevin Garnett, and the sweet-shooting Ray Allen are still the heart and soul of Doc Rivers' team.
Pierce, who took home MVP honors in the finals, led the club in scoring (19.6 ppg) last year, while Allen averaged 17.4 points in 73 games during the regular season and Garnett posted 18.8 points and a team-best 9.2 rebounds per game.
Of course the veterans were supposed to produce. It was the Celtics role players that put them over the top.
Center Kendrick Perkins and point guard Rajon Rondo proved they fit perfectly with the big three in the starting lineup, while Glen Davis, James Posey, Leon Powe and Tony Allen all had their moments and played key roles in Boston's championship run. Veterans P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell also contributed mightily at times.
All will be back with the exception of the valuable Posey, who signed with New Orleans, and the aged Brown.
Meanwhile in Cleveland, it's the same old story. James needs more help if he is going to lead the Cavs to the top of the NBA mountain.
The 23-year-old James led the Cavaliers, who split the regular season series with Boston last year, in scoring (30.0 ppg) and assists (7.2 apg) last year and is now engaged in an annual battle with Bryant for the right to be called the NBA's best player.
But, Cleveland's "Batman" has never had a "Robin" and general manager Danny Ferry's annual attempt to garner the key complimentary piece has now led to former Milwaukee Bucks point guard Maurice Williams.
Williams, who was acquired in a three-team trade this offseason, instantly becomes the No. 2 option for head coach Mike Brown and the Cavs after averaging a solid 17.2 points and 6.3 assists for the Bucks last season. In the season before that, Williams tallied 17.3 points and 6.1 assists, numbers that trump any of James' teammates over the same period.
Veteran center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who averaged a team-best 9.3 rebounds last season, joins Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic, Wally Szczerbiak, Anderson Varejao, Ben Wallace and Delonte West to make up a solid supporting cast in Cleveland.
The Cavs haven't had much luck in Boston recently, however. Including the playoffs, Mike Brown's club finished 0-6 there last season and averaged just 80.5 points per game against the defensive-minded Celtics, who finished 35-6 at home during the regular season and an astounding 13-1 during the playoffs.
