INDEPENDENCE — It won’t take long for the Cavaliers and Boston Celtics to renew acquaintances — and their heated rivalry.

The Eastern Conference powers kick off the NBA season tonight at 7:30 at Quicken Loans Arena, with both clubs owning legitimate title aspirations.

“I don’t dislike Boston, and I don’t think they dislike us, either,” Cleveland small forward LeBron James said Monday at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “When you have competitors, there’s a little more fire than usual, but I don’t think there’s any hard feelings. No one wants to see anybody get hurt.

“It’s two really good teams,” he added. “We (both) have high hopes. Every game is going to be played like it’s the last.”
While the final outcome tonight won’t come anywhere close to making or breaking either team’s season, neither wants to see the other get the upper hand.

Counting the 2008 Eastern Conference semifinals, which the Celtics won in seven memorable games, the last 16 meetings between these teams have been won by the home team. The last time the visiting team left with a victory was Jan. 3, 2007, when Cleveland won in Boston, pre-Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.

“Honestly, we don’t like each other,” said power forward Leon Powe, who has seen the rivalry from both sides, first with Boston and now as he recuperates from knee surgery after signing with the Cavaliers in the offseason.

“There’s going to be bad blood. Everybody knows that. We’ve just got to take care of business.”

How much the Cavaliers and Celtics dislike one another depends on who is asked. Most of the big-name players go out of their way, as James did, to insist there’s no ugly animosity, but the teams definitely respect one another.

There are tons of reasons for that, but the defensive end of the floor and the win column are the two best places to start.

Cleveland led the league in defense last season, allowing just 91.4 points a game, while Boston was third at 93.4. The teams ended in a virtual tie for the league lead in field goal percentage allowed (.431), with the Celtics getting the nod only when that category was carried out to a fourth column.

In terms of wins and losses, the clubs split four regular-season meetings in 2008-09, with the Cavaliers going on to finish an NBA-best 66-16 and the Celtics coming in at 62-20.

Playing without its best player and team leader, Garnett, Boston lost to Orlando in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals, with the Magic then going on to upset the Cavaliers in six games in the conference finals.

With anything less than a championship now being unsatisfactory — Boston won it all in 2008 and Cleveland made the NBA Finals in 2007 — both teams made huge roster upgrades in the offseason.

The Celtics now have veterans Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels coming off their bench, while the Cavaliers have added Shaquille O’Neal – he called himself the “Shaquisition” on Monday – and Anthony Parker to their starting five. Jamario Moon, another new face, will be in Cleveland’s rotation.

Boston’s starting five – Rajon Rondo, Allen, Kendrick Perkins, Paul Pierce and Garnett – remains as dangerous as ever, so the Cavaliers won’t have to look far for motivation in their opener.

“Expectations are going to be high,” O’Neal said. “We know what we want to try to get done.

“Any time you play against an elite team, you want to try to do everything right.”

By the same token, the Cavaliers know they won’t be perfect. That applies to their opener and to their season as a whole.
“I’m not excited about where we are on both sides of the ball,” said Cleveland coach Mike Brown, whose team went 4-4 in the preseason. “We’ve made some progress, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

“I was hoping to be a little further along,” he added. “That’s OK, because I know we do have time to get better.”

To be exact, the Cavaliers will have 82 games to get better, so no one will get too high if they’re 1-0 or too low if they’re 0-1 after tonight.

“I’ve been around 17 years and I’ve seen it all,” O’Neal said. “You can’t win a championship by winning the first game. You’ve still got to play all 82.”

Tonight

• Who: Boston at Cleveland
• What: Season opener
• Time: 7:30
• Where: The Q
• TV/radio: TNT; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

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