OKLAHOMA CITY – Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra calls him the Heat's most important player.
By Derick E. Hingle, US Presswire
Miami Heat power forward Chris Bosh reacts during the second quarter of Game 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Bosh chipped in 16 points and 15 rebounds as the Heat won to tie the NBA Finals series.
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It's not forward LeBron James, and it's not guard Dwyane Wade.
Spoelstra didn't say best or most valuable. He said most important.
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It's Miami forward Chris Bosh.
Bosh had 16 points, a game-high 15 rebounds and two blocked shots.
"Sensational," Spoelstra said. "We needed every bit of his big game tonight, and that's what he brought."
Bosh started for the first time since sustaining a lower abdominal strain May 13 against the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
"I kind of put it in my mind that I knew that I had to really give the effort that I had been giving before, whether I was ready or not," he said. "So today was a good time to really see where I'm at. Fortunately things went well for us, it went well for me individually, and we did what we were supposed to do."
Bosh missed nine games because of abdominal strain and returned for the final three games of Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics. But Bosh came off the bench in those games and was a reserve in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Each game, his minutes increased from 14 to 28 to 31 to 34 to 40 in Miami's 100-96 Game 2 victory Thursday, evening the best-of-7 series at 1-1.
At Thursday's early afternoon shootaround, Bosh laughed at the prospect of playing 40-plus minutes.
"Do I want to? It doesn't matter. We'll see," he said. "That's one of those things that's spur of the moment, and you don't it's going to happen until it happens. I think I'm in good enough shape and like I keep saying, there's only so many games left in the season no matter. I'm willing to lay everything out on the line.
Even though Spoelstra didn't reveal his starting lineup until about 45 minutes before tip-off, Bosh let his teammates know he ready to re-join the starting lineup at Wednesday's practice.
After watching video, which Spoelstra called nauseating, the Heat stepped on the court for practice and Spoelstra told the starters to take their spots.
As LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers and Shane Battier walked on the court, Bosh joined them.
"I was leaning that way, and that cemented my decision," Spoelstra said. "I loved it, and we didn't even have to talk about it. Everybody understood. It wasn't anything that I had to announce."
Bosh had a hunch Spoelstra wanted to start him and made the decision easy.
"It's just one of those things where you know it's time, and I have to give credit to my teammates," Bosh said. "They really did a great job adjusting to me coming off the bench when I came in because things were so difficult in the last series and Game 1 of this series.
"Sometimes it's just one of those things you can feel, and I felt - I knew, I guess - what he was thinking. We spend a lot of time together, so you can just feel that it was time to step up and be where I'm supposed to be and play how I'm supposed to play."
Bosh's return sent Udonis Haslem back to the bench and cut into his minutes.
"I was fine with it," Haslem said. "I knew there was going to come a point eventually when Chris comes back to the starting lineup. Once coach made the call, I was ready to deal with it."
Bosh made an impact in early in the first quarter. In a 17-second span from 9:41 to 9:24 of the first quarter, Bosh had three rebounds - one defensive and two offensive, the last one resulting in a tip-in.
Of Bosh's 15 rebounds, seven were offensive rebounds, giving the Heat extra and necessary possessions in a game that wasn't decided until the finals seconds.
Coaches love to talk about 50-50 balls, a situation where either team can grab the ball. Bosh had one huge 50-50 ball in the fourth quarter.
With 10:11 left in the fourth quarter, Bosh secured his 14th rebound. Wade missed a shot and four Thunder players had position for the rebound.
Thunder forward Nick Collison boxed out Bosh and forced him underneath the basket and out of bounds. But Bosh kept working. He got back in the play, tipped the ball toward halfcourt and beat four Thunder players to ball. Later in the possession, Bosh ended up with the ball, drove to the lane, got fouled and made two free throws.
It shows up as a rebound and two points. But his hustle, his desire to keep after the ball will go mostly unnoticed, except by Spoelstra's video guys charting every play.
When the Thunder trimmed that lead to 98-96 with 37 seconds left, that possession turned out to be huge.
Bosh also blocked Thabo Sefolosha's layup with 1:12 left in the fourth quarter. Originally, a referee ruled the ball went out of bounds off of a Miami player. But video review overturned the call, and on the Heat's possession, Bosh slipped free for a dunk, giving Miami a 98-91 lead.
Early in the day, Bosh and Spoelstra let news reporters know the Heat planned to make the seven-time All-Star a bigger part of Miami's offense. In the previous four games, they worked him back in slowly.
But in Game 2, Miami went to Bosh in the low post, used him on pick-and-rolls and ran the offense through him at his favorite spots - near the top of the key from elbow to elbow and the near the right baseline about 15-18 feet from the basket.
Bosh made six of 13 from the field and four of five from the foul line. Five of his makes can within four feet of the basket and helped the Heat to a 48-32 advantage inside the paint, a turnaround from Oklahoma City's 56-40 edge in Game 1. Bosh had 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting in Game 1.
"We know what adjustments to make, and when we talk about it we're going to do it," Bosh said. "We're to the point now where we can't make many mistakes, and against this team that has so many great scorers , you can't give up layups. … If they get layups, you're probably not going to beat them. So we wanted to change that."
All players take losses hard. Bosh takes losses tougher than most. Game 1 bothered him.
"Any time you drop a game, especially now, it's not a good feeling, and it stays with you all the way up until you get another chance to redeem yourself," he said. "We're pretty familiar with that feeling. I'm familiar with that feeling. I don't like it, but it sticks with you.
"All I could think about was how we could do better because we felt that. We made a lot of mistakes in Game 1, and it shouldn't have been like that. We should have played a lot better."
The Heat's most important player re-took his spot in the starting lineup on practice day following a loss and made sure the Heat went back to Miami with home-court advantage.
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