Bringing up February 24, 2011 might seem like unnecessarily digging into ancient history. After all, since that night in Chicago, Chris Bosh has since been part of beating the Bulls in a 5-game playoff series in which he posted a playoff efficiency rating of 24.52 and shot 60 percent. With such a performance, on such a stage, the significance of that date faded from memory.
But bringing up February 24, 2011 isnt a slight against Bosh. In fact, the Bosh of that game bears little resemblance to the Bosh of today, and thats exactly why the date is still relevant. Thats exactly why possibly the worst statistical performance of Boshs career might also be one of the most important.
Eighteen shots. One make. That does a fine job describing Boshs troublesome evening against the Bulls. Every player, though, will have an aberration or two in his career, where nothing goes right about the results despite everything being right about the process. But a glance at Boshs shot chart from that game indicates that the issue was the process. Not the results.
Eighteen shots. Eleven of them outside of the paint. An extreme example, even for a sweet-shooting forward whose role requires him to take advantage of those open looks, but it was a sign that something needed tweaking.
That was a unique situation, Bosh said. We put it behind us. I changed after that day, really. I left it where it was.
What he left behind was, in a sense, a strict adherence to the role of the safety valve, of the player who spaces the floor and takes advantage of the open looks afforded by Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. It was a shift in aggressiveness, sure, but also to a more tactical role, one that utilized every sector of the floor.
Everybody always looks to the right hand of the box score to see how much he scores, Erik Spoelstra said. Yet he does so much more as arguably our most important offensive player. But, he understood that it was twofold. The most important thing was we needed more of a paint presence. Not necessarily in the post, but to get catches, get opportunities right at the rim. And it works hand in hand. It also helped his game individually to be more aggressive and it set up his jump shot as well.
Ive tried to just give a lot of different looks. Play inside and out. Just kind of be all over the place, Bosh said.
When Bosh said earlier that he changed the very day he missed 17 shots, he wasnt kidding.
Before and including the Bulls game, Bosh averaged five attempts within eight feet of the basket and seven points in the paint per game. In the 44 games, including playoffs, afterward, he took six shots within eight feet per game, scoring eight points in the paint.
But those numbers arent all that different from shooting 1-for-18. Theyre results. What Bosh changed was the process. And nowhere was that more evident than in his approach to post-ups, where he started facing up for quick jumpers less and driving more, and in pick-and-rolls.
Saying Bosh did something more or less doesnt cut it. In the 2010-11 season, he rolled to the basket after setting a screen 20.7 percent of the time, opting to pop out into open space an overwhelming 73 percent of the time. That was his game, and for a good while, with the rest of the HEAT slowly developing a more fluid offensive strategy, the consistency with which Bosh could earn an elbow jumper off a screen provided a strong foundation. But soon after that night in Chicago, in the playoffs, Bosh was rolling to the bucket 45 percent of the time, scoring 1.3 points for every one of those possessions.
And it all culminated with his in-between mastery against the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.
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Now, less than a day before the HEAT will face Chicago for the first time in this regular season, the residual effects of 1-for-17 have carried over.
The player who pick-and-popped his way through 73 percent of his screen situations now only pops out 51 percent of the time. Bosh rolls right to the rim 36 percent of the time now, and the rest of the time up to 12.8 percent of the time from 6.2 the year before he sees defenders overplaying the screen and he slips the pick entirely, diving to the bucket as the ballhandler gets an impromptu double team.
With process, the results have also come. A month into the season, only seven players have scored more points per pick-and-roll, and no player in the league has scored more efficiently (1.647 points per possession) when rolling to the basket.
Those are only the possessions where Bosh receives the ball and shoots, turns the ball over or is fouled. Boshs cuts also draw the defense into the paint to seal off passing lanes, as you can see here:
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Chris is a pretty good finisher. You have to bring the defense over, Dwyane Wade said. And that gives opportunities for other guys on the wing to have a second to do what our strengths are, whether its a shooter or somebody who can attack. We want him rolling, we want him mixing it up, and we like finding him rolling to the basket.
Though frequent rolling to the rim produces more dunks for Bosh, subtle changes like these dont exactly have the appeal of a new move worked on over the summer, handling the ball in transition or taking threes. But no change has, to this point, had a greater effect on Bosh or the HEAT, and even though Bosh has often been willing to acknowledge his own shortcomings and do whats necessary to remedy those problems, being able to turn one of the most negative nights of his career into a positive experience speaks to Boshs character.
That stretch, that shooting night was something . . . unbelievable, Wade said. But that stretch and then I think when he made the changes around the time we had our five game losing streak at home (the following week), and the Lakers came in, he made a change in his game. And its carried over to this season.
The thing that makes players good, or great, is if you can learn from your mistakes and not continue to do the same thing. Thats called . . .
Wade couldnt find the word he was searching, and though it wouldnt be appropriate to finish his sentence for him, there also might not be an appropriate word to use. Some players can use failures as tools. Some players continue to evolve to help their teams win. Some players just have a certain je ne sais quois.
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