He’s learned a thing or two about himself and basketball, too.
“That I can play defence,” he said after the United States trounced Greece 92-69 last night. “I know I’m digging a hole for myself with the Raptors and everything because the expectations are going to be there.
“I can play defence and I can play a different role. I think that’s hard for guys to accept sometimes, but I just want to win.”
Assistant coach Mike D’Antoni pulled out the adjective “magnifico” to describe Bosh’s 18-point game against Greece yesterday, as well as his play overall. Teammate Kobe Bryant gushed over his play.
“Chris Bosh was terrific,” said Bryant. “He always seems to find himself in the right place at the right time and when we penetrate he’s able to find a little crack or seam and be able to finish.
“And defensively he did a great job on the pick-and-roll and stopping their guards from penetrating. He was getting steals and we converted them into easy points. He did a fantastic job.”
Bosh has far eclipsed Carlos Boozer as the backup centre on a smallish American team and with Dwight Howard’s propensity to draw fouls, it could mean more time for the 6-foot-11 Bosh.
Raptor fans out there?
I tell ya, I don’t think I’ve seen Chris Bosh play too much better at both ends of the court than he did in that game on Thursday over here against Greece.
Active, intense, unselfish. He looked outstanding.
And my spies tell me that’s pretty much how he’s been playing all along this summer with the American team. He’s forced Carlos Boozer to a 12th man role and I’m betting he pushes Dwight Howard for minutes the rest of the way.
I don’t know if it’ll translate to every night in the regular season (it’s going to be a lot harder to get up for, say, Charlotte some Tuesday in February than it is for Greece at the Olympics) but something seems to have twigged for the young fella.
(video) Chris Bosh Hilights
Last night, Bosh was a different player, and Team USA a different team in a 92-69 blowout of the Greeks in pool play. Once Bosh entered the game with starting centre Dwight Howard in foul trouble, the game changed.
He chattered constantly, leading and organizing, at the back of the American defence, which snuffed out a dangerous Greek team at every turn. He finished plays at the offensive end with authority, missing one of his eight shots and sharing the team scoring lead with Kobe Bryant with 18 points. Unlike in 2006, he belonged.
Bosh played nearly twice as many minutes, 21, as the foul-prone Howard, the NBA SlamDunk champion whose physical gifts may be unbeatable but whose basketball IQ can’t match that of the Raptors star.
Bosh jumped out on screens, recovered on help plays, had two steals and two blocks, and generally backstopped an American defence that ate Greece alive.
“He’s been playing well on the defensive end, and offensively he was playing big against the big men,” Wade said. “A lot of people questioned him, they said we had just one big man in Dwight. I think he took it personally.”
“We’re all aware of the lack of size and everything … I mean, I just don’t want people to forget about me,” Bosh said. “I’m still big, I can still rebound, and I feel that I’m a lot stronger than ‘06.”
He is a lot more of everything than he was in 2006. Every year, he puts in the work to improve; every year, he gives you everything he has. The Texan is probably not quite as talented as those other luminaries from his draft class. But he will maximize the talent –and there’s plenty — that he has.
The whole world asks me about the game against the USA this Saturday. I think that we will confront it calmly and without pressure. they are a great team but our intention is to play them one on one and play good basketball. There are people who think that this is the most important game of the tournament; I don’t believe it. I think that we are only going to play for the first and the second position and if we face each other again, it will be a totally different game in an absolutely different situation. In any case, I think that the most important thing comes after: quarterfinals, semifinals and what can arise. We will try to win, of course, but we have to go game by game and not forget that the key is the quarterfinal games. This is the fundamental game, the one that could be the success or the failure in any championship.
We finished so early today that we planned a day to do some tourism. They took us by bus to visit the Great Wall of China but it was raining so we couldn’t access the cable cars and we had to return to Beijing. It was two unproductive hours spent on the road, but later we visited the famous Tiananmen Square and the Silk Market. Although I would have liked to have time to get to know this immense country, the very little that I have seen has left me so impressed. It’s a totally new world for me.
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