The Heat got Chris Bosh back after missing him for nine games. If you’re wondering why that fact is just being addressed this deep in the story it’s because this is where it belongs. Bosh contributed coming off the bench, scoring nine points with seven rebounds in 14 minutes. But (Erik) Spoelstra, for reasons not completely understood, didn’t match Bosh up with (Kevin) Garnett, as the Heat badly needed, and instead purposely had Bosh avoid Garnett substitution patterns.

Then in the fourth quarter, when the Heat were fighting for survival, Spoelstra never even used his All-Star forward. Bosh was a little slow on rotations recovering from his ab strain, but he made plays when he was in the game and the Heat were in need of plays. Instead, Garnett hammered away on Miami again with big baskets, big rebounds and big defense.

“I didn’t think it would necessarily be fair to him to throw him in with three minutes to go,” Spoelstra said.

via Brian Windhorst of ESPN