Miami Heat Prepare for Eastern Conference Finals with No Sign of Chris Bosh Return

By: Stephen Patterson

It looks like the Miami Heat are preparing themselves to be without All-Star power forward Chris Bosh for an "indefinite" amount of time heading into their Eastern Conference Finals match-up with the winner of tonight's Game 7 between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers.

Head coach Erik Spoelstra told the media on Saturday that although Bosh has made some minor progress in his recovery from the strained abdominal muscle he sustained on May 15th,, there is not a set date that he will be ready to return by.

"No update from before," Spoelstra said, according to the Sun-Sentinel. "He's doing a little bit more. It's still indefinite. ... For me, it's my responsibility right now to prepare this team without him."

Without Bosh, the Heat fell into an early 2-1 hole in their second series against the Indiana Pacers.

However, they stormed back with three consecutive wins led largely by monster games LeBron James and Dwayne Wade to advance to the teams' second straight trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.

First, in Game 4 of the series against Indiana, LeBron had a historic 40 point, 18 rebound, and 9 assist performance that has only been seen once before in the history of the NBA playoffs (Elgin Baylor put up the exact same stat-line over 50 years ago). Wade contributed 30 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists as well as the team evened up the series at two games a piece.

Then in Game 5, the dynamic duo combined for 58 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists as they led Miami to a 32 point beatdown of the Pacers that prompted Indiana's team president Larry Bird to call out his team as being too S-O-F-T. It also featured several hard fouls, two of which led to suspensions for Udonis Haslem and Dexter Pittman (Pittman is still suspended for the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals).

Finally in the deciding game, Dwayne Wade took over and closed out the series with a monstrous 41 point, 10 rebound, 3 assist, and 2 steal performance that included him catching fire in the second quarter and scorching the Pacers for 20 points in the period.

Meanwhile, LeBron had an "average" performance 28 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. I call the stat-line "average" because that's the term Pacer's head coach Frank Vogel chose to use, and frankly he is right: As crazy as it sounds, these are just average numbers that we expect from LeBron in the postseason.

In fact, he has more games (16) with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists that any other active player in the league. Yes, that includes Kobe Bryant. Yes, that means Tim Duncan too.

The scariest part about that stat for the winner of tonight's Game 7 between the Celtics and Sixers? He had three of those sixteen performances in the Heat's six game series against the Pacers.

While Miami has obviously and clearly missed Chris Bosh, it has forced LeBron James to step up his level of play even more so than usual. He's already proven he is more than capable of being able to elevate his game when others around him struggle.

The problem with that is that he has also proven that he can't carry a team on his back for long periods of time. Sure, he was able to throw the Heat on his back for a majority of the team's series against the Pacers after Bosh went down. But does anyone think he can do that for six or seven games against Boston or Philly AND still have enough left in the tank to successfully battle the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals?

Bosh averaged 18 points and 7.9 rebounds during the regular season, and although his averages dipped to 14.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game in the six playoff games he appeared in, his presence on the floor is something the Heat cannot replace.

But as long as D-Wade continues to have 20+ point games and at least one or two of Miami's role players decides to show a pulse each game, the Heat should be able to reach the NBA Finals if LeBron can continue playing at his current MVP level.

However, if Bosh isn't able to return to the team for the NBA Finals, it's going to take four of the best games of LeBron's career for him to lead to Heat past either the Spurs or the Thunder for his first NBA championship. And that's assuming D-Wade can carry his fair share of the load as well.