They turned things around shortly thereafter

It's opening night. A freshly-formed juggernaut takes the floor on national television. A title-tested shooting guard who's won at the highest level as Shaquille O'Neal's sidekick, flanked by two superstars attempting to join the Fellowship of the Ring, leads his team into battle against a recent NBA champion.

The result? A stagnant, befuddled offensive performance. An eight-point loss.

Sound familiar? That's precisely where the Miami Heat found themselves after Game 1 of the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh era in late October of 2010, which they tipped off with an 88-80 loss to the Boston Celtics.

It's also where the Los Angeles Lakers stand after a disappointing defeat to the short-handed Dallas Mavericks, 99-91—tons of talent, even more new faces, even further out of whack.

Like the Heat circa 2010, these Lakers are still adjusting to one another, still learning how to play as a unit. The early days of Miami's now-budding dynasty bore witness to a tenuous balance on the perimeter between the incumbent franchise stalwart (Dwyane Wade) and the multiple-MVP arrival (LeBron James). LeBron was clearly the better player of the two, but seemed reluctant to assert himself as he normally would, for fear of upsetting Wade, his friend and colleague, and rocking a boat that was attempting to stay afloat amidst choppy waters.

What followed was an awkward re-enactment of the Dueling Banjos scene from Deliverance—Wade and LeBron taking turns dominating the ball, with Chris Bosh left sulking as a third wheel.

A similar situation appears to be unfolding in LaLa Land, with Kobe in Wade's role and Nash as LeBron. Bryant is still a superb player, arguably the best shooting guard in basketball, but as the last two seasons made clear, the Lakers aren't necessarily better off with him handling the ball and initiating the offense.

Not that he was a ball-hog on Tuesday night—he used up a relatively modest 21 percent of the Lakers' possessions on the way to a 22-point performance.

But that number trumps Nash's 13.5 percent usage rate, which is startlingly low for a player of his caliber, who's had the privilege of running the show for most of his career.

Indeed, the Lakers (and their fans) should expect plenty of frustration in the weeks (and perhaps months) to come, at least if recent history is any guide. The Heat stumbled out of the gate to a 9-8 record in 2010-11, a middling start that was analyzed ad nauseum by every talking head within close range of a microphone or a keyboard.

Those early returns landed a second-year head coach (and former video coordinator) on the hot seat. That coach was roundly criticized for sifting through seemingly makeshift tactics, trotting out an ever-changing rotation and generally appearing as though he were ill-equipped to oversee such a star-studded lineup, especially in light of the shadow cast by his predecessor.

Yes, I'm referring to LeBron's current coach—Erik Spoelstra, a disciple of the great Pat Riley—but I could just as easily be talking about his former coach, Mike Brown. The one-time Coach of the Year with the Cleveland Cavaliers has come under fire from all corners of the basketball world ever since the Lakers front office (mainly Jim Buss) hand-picked him to fill Phil Jackson's massive shoes.

(Passing over future Hall-of-Famer Rick Adelman in the process.)

Brown was the object of much ire in LA last season, when his Lakers once again failed to escape the second round of the playoffs, and has only seen the pressure on his shoulders intensify since Nash and Dwight Howard arrived.

No fewer detractors were calling for his head after the opener, to say the least. The Lakers looked helpless to stop the Mavs on one end and struggled to find easy shots on the other while running elements of an offense whose institution was Brown's brainchild.

Still, it's far, far, far too early for the Lakers to push the panic button.

Remember that 9-8 start the Heat slogged through in 2010? They turned things around shortly thereafter, winning 12 games in a row and 21-of-22. More importantly, that edition of the Heat ran all the way through the Eastern Conference and on to the NBA Finals, where they took a 2-1 lead in the series before succumbing to the payback buzz saw known otherwise as Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks.

Mind you, Miami did all this without their "Big Three" having yet figured out how to play together and absent anything resembling a productive bench.

Unless, of course, you're cool with giving big minutes to Udonis Haslem, Eddie House and Mike Bibby.

Rather, the Heat came within two wins of a title on sheer talent alone. The Lakers have the pieces at their disposal—the best center in basketball (Howard), an elite point guard (Nash), the top shooting guard (Kobe) and a top-five power forward (Pau)—to pull off a similar (if not superior) feat this season.

Albeit not without growing pains along the way, to which Nash alluded. Stiffness and uncertainty are to be expected from a team still learning the ins and outs of a read-and-react offensive scheme. Miami's motion-based arrangement wasn't exactly a slam-dunk when Spoelstra first instituted it last season.

Neither was Phil Jackson's Triangle offense when he first arrived in LA, though having two of the top three players in the NBA on the same team helped to smooth out a few of those wrinkles.