Heat Miss Bosh's Presence
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Over the weekend, the Miami Heat played two more games without power forward Chris Bosh. It was two straight losses to Utah and Los Angeles and it showed that Bosh may be the most important player on the team.
Bosh has been away from the team since the death of his grandmother last week.
Sunday at Los Angeles, the Heat was without Bosh and it showed throughout the game. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James could not get into the lane as the Lakers clogged it with seven-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.
If Bosh is playing, then Gasol would have to come further out from the lane to guard against Bosh's deadly outside jump shot. That would then open holes in the lane for James and Wade to attack, but that didn't happen Sunday without Bosh in the lineup.
"No question about it, Chris Bosh is a major component to what we do on both ends of the court," Spoelstra told CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald. "That's why we don't listen to anybody when they talk about Chris's importance or value."
Then there's the little fact that Bosh's replacement Sunday as missing, despite playing a lot of minutes. Power forward Udonis Haslem, who has typically been a rebounding machine this year, has lost his once deadly mid-range jumper.
Sunday, Haslem was 0-5 and that continued his bad shooting this year. According to the Herald, Haslem is shooting just 41.7 percent from the field. Haslem also missed a potential game-winner against Utah, despite being almost completely wide-open.
All of it is contributing to the Heat's mini-0fun they are in over the past few games. But, the Heat return home to the friendly confines of the AmericanAirlines Arena this week and get Bosh back starting Tuesday, which should help to cure the Heat's ills.
