Miami Heat Benefitting from a More Aggressive Chris Bosh

Dwyane Wade’s extended stint on the injured list has forced the Miami Heat to look elsewhere for firepower, which Chris Bosh has been more than happy to supply. Per the Miami Herald: “The guy is shooting 71.1 percent over his past two games and hasn’t missed a three-pointer or a free throw. Bosh made his first seven shots on Wednesday against Detroit, finishing with 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting. He was 1 of 1 from three-point range (2 of 2 in his past two games) and 2 of 2 from the free-throw line (16 of 16 in his past two games). He scored 62 points in the Heat’s back-to-back games against the Cavaliers and Pistons and is averaging 26.7 points since Dwyane Wade went down with a sprained ankle. ‘He’s just being aggressive — not thinking, taking the game on his shoulders and being the player that he’s capable of being,’ forward Udonis Haslem said. ‘Sometimes I think when Dwyane is in or all the Big 3 guys are together, he has a tendency to be a little passive, and I think he’s just being aggressive now.’ Bosh’s development goes beyond the numbers, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. The Heat’s power forward has emerged as a bona fide team leader in the six games without Wade. ‘The most powerful thing that he did [Tuesday] — and everyone looks at the 35 points and the 17 points he scored in the fourth quarter — but the thing I noticed the most is his disposition and his voice to start the second half,’ Spoelstra said after the Heat’s victory over the Cavaliers on Tuesday night. ‘We needed a spark, and he was very loud with all the defensive rotations. Anytime anything good happened, he was the one that was communicating that to all the players, and I think everyone fed off that energy.” This is the player the Heat imagined when Miami convinced Bosh during the 2010 free agency period that he didn’t have to play third fiddle to LeBron James and Wade. Finally, it appears Bosh is coming into his own since joining the Heat. It only took an injury to Wade for it to happen. ‘We told [Bosh], he’s a two-way player,’ Spoelstra said Wednesday. ‘He has to prove it. That’s one of the reasons we went after him in free agency. It’s because he has the ability to do it on both ends.”