This week in 2010: The Heat’s Big Three debut ends in an 88-80 loss at Boston despite LeBron James’ 31

The Miami Heat’s new superteam played its first game on Tuesday, October 26, 2010, 16 years ago this week, and the Boston Celtics spoiled it, 88-80 at TD Garden. LeBron James scored 31 points in his first game for Miami, but Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh combined for 21 on 7-of-27 shooting, and Boston’s own trio showed the newcomers how far they still had to go.

A slow start in a hostile building

The game was the league’s opening-night headliner, staged 110 days after James announced on national television that he was leaving Cleveland. The setting added an edge: James had played his final game as a Cavalier on the same floor that May, when Boston closed out the Eastern Conference semifinals in Game 6.

Miami looked like a team that had barely practiced together. The Heat scored nine points in the first quarter, missed 30 of their 41 shots in the first half and trailed 45-30 at the break. Boston stretched the lead to 19 at one point. Shaquille O’Neal, making his Celtics debut at 38, scored nine points with seven rebounds in 18 minutes.

James carried the comeback. He scored 15 of his points in the third quarter as the Heat won the period 27-18 and cut the gap to 63-57. His layup with 1:10 left made it 83-80, but Ray Allen answered with a three-pointer and Paul Pierce sealed it at the line.

The numbers

James shot 10 of 21 from the field and 8 of 12 at the line in 42 minutes, with four rebounds, three assists and two blocks. He also turned the ball over eight times. Wade, who had missed most of the preseason with a hamstring injury, went 4 of 16 for 13 points with six assists and six turnovers. Bosh had eight points and eight rebounds on 3-of-11 shooting. Miami shot 36.5 percent as a team and gave the ball away 17 times; 15 of those turnovers belonged to the three stars.

Boston’s veterans were steadier. Allen scored 20 and made 5 of 8 threes, Pierce added 19 on just seven shots, and Kevin Garnett finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Rajon Rondo scored four points but handed out 17 assists, and Glen Davis gave the Celtics 13 off the bench. Pierce left in the third quarter with a back problem after drawing a charge on James and returned early in the fourth.

Wade kept the night in perspective afterward, calling it “one of 82,” while James described the early weeks as a feel-out process.

What it led to

The loss was the first sign that the Heat would not simply roll over the league. Miami started the season 9-8 before finding its rhythm, finished 58-24 and then beat these same Celtics 4-1 in the second round of the 2011 playoffs on the way to the Finals, where Dallas won in six games. The group answered with championships in 2012 and 2013 and reached four straight Finals before James returned to Cleveland in 2014.

For Boston, the night was a reminder that its own Big Three, then in its fourth season together, was not ready to hand over the East. The rivalry that started at TD Garden that night shaped the conference for the next three seasons, peaking with a seven-game conference finals in 2012.

What comes next

The Heat open their 2026-27 season this week. Follow every game, box score and result on the site’s Game Center.