As Chris Bosh, the suddenly very-much-missed third man of the Miami Heat’s Big Three, is set to return in some capacity for tonight’s crucial Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, he enters a situation in which anything he can give to his Heat teammates will likely be accepted and appreciated. After two games of the Boston Celtics jumping out to huge leads and hanging on at home to tie the series at 2, Bosh’s return in front of the home crowd in Miami could provide a nice spark for a Heat team that has started the last two games looking like they’ve been transported back in time to a tip-off of a contest against the Pistons in mid-January.
For whatever reason, the urgency of the matter wasn’t there for the Heat in Boston. At least to start. And the Celtics, to their credit, jumped all over them and took full advantage of the obvious lack of tenacity. Boston’s droughts can look as pitiful as their spurts of scoring look gorgeous, and while they’re not lacking in the confidence department, smelling blood in the water early on only helps their dangerous underdog image come to life all the more. Further, the lack of focus on the game — instead, perhaps, complaining to the officials, as Rajon Rondo now famously and publicly noticed at halftime of Game 4 — fuels the hatred between these teams to a boiling point that Rondo can (and has) transfer that emotion to dark, beautiful magic on the basketball floor. In short, the Heat have put themselves in an unsettling position because they’re play is too often rag-tag and relaxed to the point of apathy. And the Celtics, feeling the slight and the confusion of the other side, are burning them for it.
Again, enter Chris Bosh. His minutes will probably be limited tonight and it’s his first real basketball game in awhile, so a prediction as to what we should expect from him is futile. But if all Bosh does is start or come off the bench early and give the Heat something to energize themselves around, he may have done his job. The fascinating thing about this series is that, if you think of it as a whole, it’s hard not to picture Boston as the better team overall so far. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Rondo’s growing transcendence as an unknowable savant, Ray Allen’s resurgence and Kevin Garnett’s consistency, to name a few, have put the depleted Celtics in a position to steal this series from Miami. The Heat, with their constantly-moving parts and struggles in late-game execution, have not looked overly concerned about much of anything yet. This can be good and bad; the panic button needn’t be pressed, but still, time is running out to set the tone and take a series many thought was theirs from the beginning.
All of this sort of falls into the lap of Chris Bosh, since he’s the new guy in the storyline starting tonight. If nothing else, whatever happens will be viewed through the lens of “with Bosh back.” But of course, he’s the third wheel in Miami, and while his return could prompt a show of force from his teammates, or simply make things work a little better out on the floor for them, the Heat’s fate will be decided by the play of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. If they can’t conjure up a stronger start, or a smarter finish, Chris Bosh will be neither the problem nor the solution.
Griffin Gotta contributes to The Hoop Doctors and is a co-managing editor of Straight Outta Vancouver on SB Nation. The story arcs and infinite weirdness of the NBA are addictions he deals with every day. Email him at griffingotta at gmail dot com.
