National Basketball Association

Report: Heat hoping to activate Bosh

Published Jun. 4, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

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Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh could return Tuesday night for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, with his team looking to bounce back after two losses in Boston.

According to ESPN, the team believes Bosh will be able to play as long as he does not suffer any setbacks in his workouts over the next two days.

''His status is day-to-day,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ''And I know everything's heightened because of the playoffs. I'll continue to make my evaluations about Chris. He's making significant progress. But to say it's definitive right now is premature. Each day will be a new evaluation and then we'll go from there.''

Bosh has had several on-court workouts in the past week, and Spoelstra said he was going to evaluate him again Monday.

''It's not a normal situation,'' Spoelstra said. ''Everything's heightened. It is extreme.''

The 28-year-old, an All-Star the past seven seasons, has been out three weeks after straining an abdominal muscle in the first game of the prior series against Indiana.

The Heat dropped the next two games to the Pacers, but rebounded with three straight wins to close out the series.

Miami won the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals at home over the Celtics. The series now moves back to Miami tied at two games apiece after the Celtics won an overtime thriller Sunday night 93-91.

In the nine postseason games since, Miami has gone 5-4. And with the Heat-Celtics series now essentially a best-of-three to determine who goes to the NBA finals, Miami would gladly welcome whatever edge Bosh can provide, even if that means working one of their top players back into the lineup in the midst of a playoff series.

''We couldn't win without him for two years. And not only could we not win without him, we looked horrible without him,'' Spoelstra said. ''So I think that was the bigger challenge. If and when we ever get to that point, we'll gladly take that challenge. He was our most important player for a long period of time.''

Bosh was averaging 14.7 points and 6.8 rebounds through the team's first six postseason games.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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