Heat Vs. Celtics Predictions: Chris Bosh’s Success Against Kevin Garnett Vital

This series is going to be a major test for the Miami Heat to see how far they have come as a team from the beginning of the season up until now. From even before these teams played their first game against one another back on opening night in late October, the Boston Celtics have been labeled as the "team to beat" from a Heat perspective. When you bring together the kind of talent that Miami has and their make it clear that their sole purpose is to win an NBA championship, the natural choice of a rival is going to be the defending champs. Combine that with the Celtics spanking the Heat right out of the 1st round of the playoffs last season, and now you have a team and fan base that feels there is some unfinished business to take care of.

When looking at this second-round series there are plenty of matchups that can be broken down. Will Dwyane Wade be able to keep up with Ray Allen, and how much will chasing Allen around the floor effect Wade's endurance on the other end of the floor? Then there is LeBron James and Paul Pierce; which one will be able to do a better job containing the other? Then there is the one that I am most intrigued to see what happens, and that's between Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh.

Both players have done a good job making opposing power forwards look downright silly at times, but Bosh has more of an outside game then Garnett, who is definitely the more physical player of the two. Bosh said after the Heat's first round series with Philadelphia that he had a hard time defending Elton Brand, so it will be interesting to see how he handles the much more experienced Garnett and if he is able to contain him.

Obviously each teams reserve players are going to make an impact, and while Boston seems to be the deeper squad, Miami just needs to get some consistency form their bench. If guys like James Jones and Mario Chalmers can continue to hit their outside shots, the Heat's chances get that much better. As an added bonus, it looks like Miami is going to be getting Udonis Haslem back in the lineup, which is absolutely huge.

Bringing in Haslem off the bench and adding depth to the Heat's big guy rotation is going to give Erik Spoelstra so many more options with his lineups, and that is a huge factor when trying to beat this very deep Boston squad. Haslem has been out since late November but all signs point to him being ready to come back for the Heat-Celtics series. Taking all that into consideration, I have to go with Miami in a 6-7 game series.