National Basketball Association

Bosh turning Big 3 into Big 2

Published Nov. 5, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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All season, Chris Bosh has seemed apart.

Before and after games, he’s carried himself with a shyness that doesn’t reflect his personality. In interviews, he’s often exuded a reservation — appearing to hold something back — much different than what comes from co-stars Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.

LeBron has been filled with a sense of purpose, if not ease, and he’s readily shared its intensity game after game. Wade has radiated the same charm and guy-next-door persona that mark his commercials, even after Friday night’s 96-93 loss to the New Orleans Hornets.

LeBron and Wade also have formed a genuine bond, slipping into an easy rapport at the podium and a comfortable togetherness away from prying eyes.

But Bosh has seemed altogether separate, in more ways than one. Friday night’s letdown, in which Bosh turned invisible for the first half and finished with only one rebound, was the most striking example yet of his ability this season to suddenly fade away.

All year, one third of the Big Three has been gone — if not unnoticed, noticed less.

Forgive us if we now, ahem, wonder if it isn’t more the Big Two and the other guy.

This is the point where we’d quote Bosh himself and give him his say. But after the Heat said he would appear at the podium with Wade and LeBron after the loss, Bosh was a no-show. Word was he’d already made for the team bus. No matter. It seemed fitting.

“Right now, for us, it’s not about the record,” Wade said. “It’s about how we’re playing as a team.”

Bosh is a big part of the team — woven intricately into its branding and promise — and he started the game off as if he were ready to live up to the hype. He hit his first jumper to score the Heat’s first points. He took the shot next time down, too, but the play was waved dead. He wanted it again a short time later and was fouled. On his fourth touch, he drove along the baseline and was fouled again.

Good. He was ready to be aggressive. He was not just present but assertively so.

There have been other times this year when Bosh’s personality and presence have suddenly emerged. In those rare moments when he smiles and his guard seems to visibly slip, and there’s a hint of humor — a sense of him at ease — and then it’s gone.

The force field returns.

He emerged briefly on the court Friday night as well and then slipped away as expected. After that burst of energy, he was gone for the rest of the half.

On the floor, yes. But with no impact.

He scored two points that half. He emerged again in the third quarter with 10 points. Then he disappeared again. He hit one big shot in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough.

This cannot work. It won’t work. Afterward, even Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra seemed to want to talk of Bosh’s night to vanish as well.

Asked about Bosh’s first-half disappearing act and whether Spoelstra worried about his third star, the Heat head coach didn’t even say the guy’s name.

That, too, seemed about right.

“It’s going to change game to game,” Spoelstra said. “And the way we play defensively, and even offensively, you have to be an active participant in this and get involved. You can always get involved defensively and on the glass, and that’s what we ask of all of our players.”

How would you rate how involved Bosh got?

“I’m not grading him, I’m not weighting him,” Spoelstra said. “We had an opportunity, 90-89, to close out the game, and we didn’t.”

But the box score did grade him, clear as black and white: 15 points and one rebound.

One.

This won’t work.

It is one game. All great players put in poor performances. Bosh entered the game averaging 13 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. But there’s also his role in being part of the Big Three. That kind of grandeur comes with not just expectations but responsibilities.

It’s time he started meeting them.

Part of that is being present. On the court, that means exerting an aggressiveness wholly lacking Friday. It means pulling down more boards and delivering a defensive performance that doesn’t require his coach to talk around his name.

It requires being present when the Big Two arrive to face questions after another disappointing loss.

You can follow Bill Reiter on Twitter.
 

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