Celtics-Heat Game 7: Chris Bosh becomes the ultimate ‘stretch’ four

Tell me you saw it coming. I’ll call you a liar. Chris Bosh, the most maligned of the Big 3 in Miami, the one everyone questions the toughness of, put the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Eight-for-10, 19 points, eight rebounds and it doesn’t even begin to describe his performance in the Heat’s 101-88 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Bosh, who only returned from an abdominal injury in Game 5, stepped up and had the game of his career. It wasn’t just the shots, major, huge, boulder-stone threes that he dropped in on the Celtics when they left him on the perimeter, it was the defense. Twice, Bosh intercepted passes intended for lobs to Kevin Garnett. Finally, finally, finally, the Heat had figured out a way to combat the Celtics’ lob to KG. Stick the big long athletic guy in there and have him mess things up.

It was maybe the finest moment of Bosh’s career. The player most often criticized for a lack of toughness and an inability to contain his emotions came through with a huge game fueled by smart play and passion. Bosh played through his recovery and nailed huge shot after huge shot, making play after play. Bosh, as cerebral a player as you’re likely to come across, famously sobbed walking off the floor in last year’s Finals. Now he’ll have another chance to make amends, and finally turn the lasting image of him into a winner.

In a lot of ways, the injury to Bosh was the best thing that could have happened for his career. No longer was he the irrelevant member of the Big 3. He was the missing piece, the player they really needed, the reason they would lose. His return was gifted with low expectations and he surpassed them by miles. He gave the Heat a lift in Game 6 and put them over the top with Game 7, this final frame against the Celtics standing as his finest playoff performance to date, at least in the minds of most.

Bosh spread the floor, something that none of the other Heat shooters were able to do, and provided them with a weapon the Celtics weren’t expecting. The game, the series, really, had devolved into a series of predictable punches. Bosh gave them something the Celtics had not schemed for. Bosh told reporters late that he’d been practicing threes. Andrew Bynum is thrilled to hear this. But Bosh shot the same way he hits his mid-range jumpers. It was the same flow, the same motion, the same everything. Just a little further out.

So now Chris Bosh has redefined his narrative, as the Heat have redefined theirs. The old story of Bosh is dead for now. And if he plays like this in the Finals, there will be nothing to cry about.