Bosh's new-found love for jumper leads Heat

MIAMI -- Chris Bosh got married last year. But this year he has a second love. The jump shot. "People say, 'Don't fall in love with it,"' said the Miami power forward. "But it loves me. So I love it back." Valentine's Day is coming soon, and Bosh might have something in store for Spalding. Rarely have the two got along so well. In a 92-85 win over Cleveland on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena, Bosh shot 10-of-16 while tying his Heat high with 35 points. He made five shots from 18 feet or beyond, one a three-pointer, and hit another from 16 feet. While Bosh was falling in love with his jumper, that brings us to the opposite emotion Cleveland fans have about forward LeBron James, who bolted the Cavaliers for Miami in the summer of 2010. No, the Cavaliers did not defeat the James gang, losing for the fourth time in five tries. But James didn't have a big game against them. James, who averaged 27.5 points against the Cavaliers last season, managed just 18 on 8-of-21 shooting while committing five turnovers. But, considering what the scoreboard read after the game, he said he didn't care. "I'm not one of those guys," James said about being frustrated he didn't play well even though his team won. "I don't really care. I'm here to win, and it doesn't matter how I play. It'd frustrate me a lot more if I lost because I'm all about team, man. When I don't play well and we lose, I feel like I ain't doing nothing. But my teammates picked me up." With all of that in mind, that's one reason why James bolted the Cavaliers. Had he still been in Cleveland and had a similar night, the Cavaliers might have been doomed. Instead, James now plays alongside Dwyane Wade and Bosh. But even though Wade sat out Tuesday for the fifth straight game due to a sprained right ankle, Bosh was at his best. "It's who he was," James said about Bosh always having the jump shot and overall offensive game in his arsenal but needing to be prodded to shoot more. "I think he's had to make the biggest adjustment with this whole situation (of joining forces last season with James and Wade) He's done it before with Toronto (his former team). Given his opportunity, you see a lot of good come out of some injuries. We never want any injury to our team, but we've seen what CB has done since the injury." In the past five games Wade has been out, the 6-foot-11 Bosh has averaged 27.2 points. He's hit some timely jumpers during that period but never the barrage he unlaunched Tuesday. The three-pointer was a big one, coming on a set play, although Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said it wasn't necessary for a three-pointer. That one from the right corner extended the lead to 75-67 with 4:26 left in the game. "I just wanted to make sure that I pulled the trigger without any kind of hesitation," said Bosh, who made his only three-point attempt to make him 6-of-20 on the season after going 6-of-25 all of last season. "That's when I usually get in trouble." While not providing an exact timeframe, Bosh admitted he's had confidence difficulties with his outside shot. "I was hesitating sometimes," said Bosh, who also Tuesday went 14-of-14 from the foul line. "I was worried too much about missing sometimes." But Bosh has been working extra hard in the gym. He's also had teammates in his ear, insisting he launch more outside shots. "I told him, 'If you're going to work on it in the offseason, implement it into a game situation. Don't just work at it in practice and work at it in the offseason, and not doing it in the game makes no sense,"' James said. Bosh picked a good time to think his name is Ray Allen. He scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, the most by a Miami player this season in that quarter, to make sure the upset-minded Cavaliers never got closer than two points. As for James, isn't he counted on to take over games in the fourth quarter, especially when the foe is his former team? James had just two points in the quarter on 1-of-5 shooting. But at least James didn't lose to the Cavaliers, which is what happened when he played them the previous time, March 29 in Cleveland. After having called Tuesday "just another game" beforehand, James admitted afterward it's really not. "There's always going to be some emotions to that game for me no matter what, just being out there and playing alongside my old teammates," James said. "We got a lot of history together." After the final buzzer, James hugged former teammates Anthony Parker and Anderson Varejao as well as Cleveland rookie Kyrie Irving, taken with the No. 1 pick in the draft last June eight years after James had gone No. 1 to the Cavaliers. Irving didn't dazzle, scoring 17 points. Then again, nobody really did in a sloppy game in which the Cavaliers had 20 turnovers and the Heat 18. That is, nobody but Bosh. He bounced back after having a career-high eight turnovers in Miami's previous game, a surprising 91-82 home loss Sunday to mediocre Milwaukee. "I just wanted to kind of make up for it," said Bosh, who had just two miscues Tuesday. "It was uncharacteristic for me." Some might say Bosh is making up for a lot in a short time. He scoring average last season slipped to 18.7, his lowest in six years. Part of that was playing aside high-scoring teammates James and Wade, but Bosh has admitted some disappointment in his play during his first Miami season. Bosh's average this season has zoomed to 21.4. But part of that is due to Wade being out, and he knows it. "When Dwyane comes back, I know that it's going to go down quite a bit," Bosh said of the touches he gets. "But I'm just trying to be a good team player right now and in the future." Bosh said being a team player now is taking more outside shots because the Heat need scoring with Wade out. And Miami fans are loving Bosh's new love affair with the jumper. Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson