Chris Bosh had a pretty remarkable Saturday night. He scored a season-high 37 points to help his Miami Heat — sans LeBron James — overcome the Blazers in Portland. He also hit the game-winning three-pointer with under a second to play. Now comes word he actually overrode the instructions of coach Erik Spoelstra before the game-winner; Spoels had wanted CB to go for the tie, instead of the win.
By way of PBT, comes the news from Kevin Arnovitz at ESPN that Bosh actually initiated the plan for him to take the game-winning three-pointer:
“My call at the end of the game was more conservative,” Spoelstra said. “I drew something up to get him on the move and he said, ‘No, I want it for the 3.’ So he overruled it and became a prophet.”
Spoelstra’s original blueprint had Bosh receiving the ball from Dwyane Wade at the foul line extended, the midrange spot from which Bosh led the NBA last season in field goal percentage and has made a good living. A successful shot would’ve tied the score and likely sent the game to overtime. Then Bosh did the math.
“I kind of figured that it was going to be a long 2, and I didn’t want that,” Bosh said. “I knew I would be open and have more space if I popped for 3. In that situation, I wanted to go for the win,” Bosh said.
The way Bosh saw it, this was the game’s decisive possession and his attempt would ultimately win or lose the game for Miami. That being the case, Bosh wanted a more rhythmic shot.
“My momentum was going to be taking me away and I was going to have to stop, set and there wasn’t much time. I wanted to come kind of downhill a little, to step into it.”
So not only did Bosh knock it down when it counted, but now we find out he was the one who wanted to roll the dice, and get out of Portland without having to play an extra session.
If this had happened three years ago, some columnist would have already written a piece about how Bosh was clutch and ‘Bron was not, but thankfully that tired trope has subsided. Now we can just appreciate Bosh’s confidence in his shot (he was 2-for-2 from deep at that point). We’re gonna start calling him “The Prophet.”
[ESPN]
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