MIAMI, (Reuters) – With shiny new diamond-encrusted rings on their fingers, the Miami Heat began their NBA title defence in confident fashion with a 120-107 win over Eastern Conference rivals the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.
Miami were presented with championship rings and rose the title banner to the arena rafters before the game to mark their second NBA title and the first since the creation of the ‘Big Three’ with the arrival of Lebron James and Chris Bosh to team up with Dwyane Wade.
Ray Allen made his Miami debut against his old team and put aside any concerns about his fitness with 19 points as the home crowd taunted the Celtics with chants of “We got Ray!”.
Last season’s Most Valuable Player James marked his first ring ceremony with 26 points but had to sit out most of the fourth quarter with leg cramps.
James, who also suffered cramps in last season’s finals, left in the third quarter but came back before cramping up again.
“At that point there was no point in forcing it,” said Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra.
“He already went back and started to cramp again. Game one is not the time to pull what we did in the finals,” he added.
James’ points tally continued his run of scoring at least 20 points in each of his last 28 regular season games against Boston.
