Celtics opener: Tears from Pierce, hunger pangs from LBJ

Updated: August 6, 2009, 4:15 PM ET

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By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com
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BOSTON -- There are several snapshots we'll walk away with from the night the Boston Celtics raised their 17th championship banner to the rafters -- a night, unlike ring ceremonies we've witnessed in recent years, in which the focus on what happened last season seemed to dissipate before the evening was even halfway over.

Yes, the Celtics came to get their rings. Yes, there were the requisite jokes about whether commissioner David Stern flashed a gang symbol at Paul Pierce before handing him his jewelry. And yes, there was the game finishing the same way so many Celtics home games ended last season -- the C's on the winning side of the final score, this one a 90-85 victory.

But the focus Tuesday was not on how much bling was in each ring. It was on what the Celtics -- and the Cavs, for that matter -- were ready to bring. Which players had improved most over the summer? Which team appeared more polished? And most importantly, which team was hungrier?

And after one game, the check mark in all three categories went to Boston.

"After halftime, emotions got out of the way and we started to play our brand of basketball," said Pierce, who led all scorers with 27 points after giving a prolonged, teary-eyed, crackly-voiced speech to the crowd following the raising of the championship banner. "We're going to learn from this game."

They'll need to, because this was an oddity of a night on which the best player on the court in the fourth quarter was not a member of Boston's big three, nor was it LeBron James, who gave a somewhat quizzical answer beforehand when asked whether winning the gold medal with the U.S. Olympic team had sapped him of some of his hunger to succeed.

In a final 12 minutes in which Boston's trio of Ray Allen, Pierce and Kevin Garnett combined for only eight points, the champs let Tony Allen (seven points) and second-year pro Leon Powe (four points) handle most of the heavy lifting, while the team in wine and gold got its biggest boost not from James, who missed two of four crucial free throws in the final seconds, but from Anderson Varejao, who was even more effective on the boards (seven in the quarter) than he was in shutting down Garnett (only one shot attempt in the final 7 1/2 minutes).

"It was an emotional night, and I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but it was hard to step back from it," Garnett said. "The second half was better once we settled in, and when teams come in here they know our defense will be up to par, and that's what we'll hang our hats on."

The emotions were flowing in the moments prior to tip-off, tears filling Pierce's eyes as he tried to spew out exactly how meaningful this moment was for him. John Havlicek was holding the championship trophy as he led a procession of Celtics' greats out of the tunnel, and Garnett was the unofficial winner of the race to see who could put the ring on his finger quickest after the commish handed it over.

Predictably, the Celtics were flat over the first 24 minutes, but they seized control with a 12-2 run to begin the second half, went ahead by four entering the fourth and never let the Cavs catch them. James had two chances to keep Cleveland within striking distance late in the fourth, but he missed the first of two free throws with 10.6 seconds left, blowing a chance to pull the Cavs within one, and then missed the first of two with 4.8 seconds left when a pair of makes would have gotten the deficit down to two.

The misses contributed to James' 4-for-8 showing from the free-throw line, prompting ESPN.com to ask him afterward what his goal was for the season in terms of free-throw percentage (his free-throw percentage dropped in each of his first four seasons, from .794 to .698, before rising to .712 last season).

"Eighty percent," James answered, "but I didn't start too well tonight."

We should expect James to be up around 80 percent by this point in his career, trending upward in his accuracy rather than in the opposite direction. But free throws are one of those little things that have tested James' concentration and confidence over the years, tests that he had continually failed to ace until this past summer in Beijing. So satisfying was winning the gold, especially after being a part of Team USA's failures in Athens in 2004 and in Japan in 2006, that it made one wonder whether James still feels the same level of hunger that he carried with him 12 or 24 months ago.

"I think it's impacted my hunger a lot. To set out to accomplish something, and to have it happen over a four-year time, and to also do it with guys that all had the same dream -- to win a gold medal -- it was everything and more. I think the next step for me is winning an NBA championship," James said, "but it's tougher to put the same challenges on this team as the USA team -- 11 of the greatest guys in the world. But we have high expectations here, and when you have success at doing something you set out to do, it helps you motivate yourself for your next challenge."

The first step of that challenge was spoiling the Celtics' celebration, and the Cavs weren't up to the task.

Yes, it's only one of 82, and yes, it will matter not one iota come late May or early June. But Tuesday night set a tone for these two teams to carry with them until they see each other again on Jan. 9, and the first 48 minutes of the 2008-09 season showed us that the edge in this matchup still goes to the Celtics. At least for now.

Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here.