If you missed the postgame interviews, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra was asked why he left Chris Bosh on the bench for the entire fourth quarter of the Heat’s Game 5 loss to the Boston Celtics.
Spoelstra responded that it “wouldn’t have been fair” to Bosh to put him in for the final 3 minutes.
Hello?
Wouldn’t have been fair?
On what grounds? This was Game 5 of an even series, a fourth quarter in which the Heat were getting destroyed over and over and over again by Kevin Garnett down low, and Spoelstra had one of Miami’s “Big Three” available to him and chose not to use him — presumably because Bosh had missed nearly a month with a strained abdominal muscle, and hadn’t been in a crucial late-game situation for an even longer period of time.
Hello?
Is that not a scandalous answer?
Miami ended up getting nothing from LeBron James down the stretch and not enough from Dwyane Wade. Two of the biggest field goal attempts of the final stretch went to Mario Chalmers, who is a nice player but has never been considered a go-to scorer in close games, much less a talent worthy of “Big Three” status.
I’m not saying Bosh would have made the difference, but Miami was at its best in the regular season when Bosh, Udonis Haslem, James, Wade and Chalmers closed games. Even if it was a matchup issue and he only wanted to use one big, Bosh still would have been a superior option to Haslem, who was getting killed by KG and whose offensive repertoire is about one-tenth of Bosh’s.
That being said, who do I expect to win the series?
The answer is in the above video with CineSport’s Tara Petrolino.
Alex says
Please. Spoelstra was being diplomatic. The guy couldn’t move and defend. KG would have had less problem with Bosh guarding him.
Bhel Atlantic says
Bosh was also getting abused by Garnett. Maybe Spoelstra gave a diplomatic answer when what he really meant was “Bosh is still limited by his injury and he sucked out there on the defensive side.”