MIAMI — Chris Bosh got married last year. But this year he has a second love.
The jump shot.
"People say, 'Don't fall in love with it,"' Bosh said after tying his Heat high with 35 points in Tuesday's 92-85 win over the Cavs. "But it loves me. So I love it back."
Valentine's Day is coming soon, and Bosh might have something in store for Spalding. Rarely have the two gotten along so well. Bosh shot 10 of 16 against Cleveland. He made five shots from 18 feet or beyond, one a 3-pointer, and hit another from 16 feet.
LeBron James, who averaged 27.5 points against the Cavaliers last season, managed just 18 on 8-of-21 shooting while committing five turnovers. He barely outscored the Cavs' new sensation, Kyrie Irving. But considering that he beat his old team for the fourth time in five tries, he said he didn't care about his performance.
"I'm not one of those guys," James said. "I don't really care. I'm here to win, and it doesn't matter how I play. It'd frustrate me a lot more if I lost because I'm all about team, man. When I don't play well and we lose, I feel like I ain't doing nothing. But my teammates picked me up."
Even though Wade sat out for the fifth straight game due to a sprained right ankle, Bosh was at his best.
"It's who he was," James said, insisting that Bosh always had the jump shot and overall offensive game but needed to be prodded to shoot more. "I think he's had to make the biggest adjustment with this whole situation… He's done it before with Toronto. Given his opportunity, you see a lot of good come out of some injuries."
In the past five games Wade has been out, the 6-foot-11 Bosh has averaged 27.2 points. He'd hit some timely jumpers, but nothing like the barrage he unleashed Tuesday.
The 3-pointer from the right corner was a big one, coming on a set play and extending the lead to 75-67 with 4:26 left in the game.
"I just wanted to make sure that I pulled the trigger without any kind of hesitation," said Bosh, who improved to 6 of 20 after going 6 of 25 last season. "That's when I usually get in trouble."
Bosh acknowledged he's had confidence issues with his outside shot.
"I was hesitating sometimes," said Bosh, who went 14 of 14 from the foul line. "I was worried too much about missing."
But Bosh has been working extra hard in the gym. He's also had teammates in his ear, insisting he launch more outside shots.
"I told him, If you're going to work on it in the offseason, implement it into a game situation. Don't just work at it in practice and work at it in the offseason ... not doing it in the game makes no sense," James said.
Bosh picked a good time to make like Ray Allen. He scored 17 points in the fourth, the most in that quarter by a Miami player this season, to make sure the upset-minded Cavaliers never got closer than two points.
As for James, isn't he counted on to take over games in the fourth quarter, especially when the foe is his former team? James had just two points in the quarter on 1-of-5 shooting.
But at least James didn't suffer a repeat of the Heat's March 29 loss in Cleveland. After having called Tuesday "just another game" beforehand, James acknowledged it's really not.
"There's always going to be some emotions to that game for me no matter what, just being out there and playing alongside my old teammates," James said. "We got a lot of history together."
After the final buzzer, James hugged former teammates Anthony Parker and Anderson Varejao as well as Irving, taken with the No. 1 pick in the draft last June, eight years after James had gone No. 1 to the Cavaliers.
Irving didn't dazzle, scoring 17 points. Then again, there wasn't much that dazzled in a sloppy game in which the Cavaliers had 20 turnovers and the Heat 18.
But Bosh and his jumper did, after having a career-high eight turnovers in Miami's surprising 91-82 home loss to mediocre Milwaukee on Sunday.
"I just wanted to kind of make up for it," said Bosh, who had just two miscues Tuesday. "It was uncharacteristic for me."
Some might say Bosh is making up for a lot in a short time. He scoring average last season slipped to 18.7, his lowest in six years. Part of that was playing alongside James and Wade, but Bosh acknowledged disappointment with his play.
Bosh's average this season has zoomed to 21.4 points. But part of that is due to Wade being out, and he knows it. "When Dwyane comes back, I know that it's going to go down quite a bit," Bosh said of the touches he gets.
Bosh said being a team player now means taking more outside shots because the Heat need scoring with Wade out. And Miami fans are loving Bosh's new love affair with the jumper.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson
