Chris Bosh on Spurs: It’s A Little Mind Game
By Daniel Nicks
Chris Bosh won’t be battling the San Antonio Spurs Tuesday night nearly as much as he’s battling that little voice in his head that’s begging him to go all Monta Ellis from beyond the arc.
Turns out he finally caught onto the fact the Spurs are leaving him open for a reason. Imagine that.
"“It really seemed like that’s what they wanted me to do,” Bosh said at shootaround Tuesday. “So I’m not going to do it right now. They wanted me to shoot 3s. I could tell by looking at the film. So, I kind of changed it up because nobody was closing out to me when I catch it, nobody was closing out to me when I’m shooting. I just wanted to get to an area I could be more aggressive and really work against that.”… “It’s a little mind-game. I know what they’re doing,” Bosh said. “Once I saw that, I said, ‘OK, alright, I need to switch it up a little bit.’ I can always step out and knock those down, but to get in a better rhythm, I think starting closer to the basket is ideal.”"
And it’s not that Bosh needs to flat-out refrain from shooting perimeter jumpers. Because he’s actually one hell of a mid-ranger shooter. But after his 0-4 performance from downtown in game one, it was nice change of pace to see him attempt zero in game two and ultimately helped the Heat. His 12 points on 6-10 shooting in game one compared to his 13 points on 6-16 shooting in game two can attest to that.
In other words, your compelling storyline for game three? Chris Bosh vs. himself.