NBA Playoffs 2012: Miami Heat Still Title Favorites If Chris Bosh Can't Play?

Whether it's because of the lockout shortened season, increased physical play or just consistent bad luck, there seems to have been an extreme rate of injuries in the NBA in 2012. 

Players such as Al Horford, LaMarcus Aldridge, Jeremy Lin and Ricky Rubio are just some of the examples of key players who got injured during the season and affected their teams playoff chances or positioning. 

Then there are the injuries to superstar players Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard who saw their teams fall in the first round of the playoffs without their services. 

Now it is time to add another name to the list of star players who were injured this year. Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Miami Heat All-Star forward Chris Bosh is out indefinitely with a strained abdominal. It is unclear how much time Bosh will miss, but he is at least expected to miss the rest of the conference semifinals, and it is unsure if he will be able to return after that—if the Heat are able to win their series against the Indiana Pacers.  

Bosh averaged 18 points and eight rebounds per game during the regular season and is obviously a huge part of a Miami team who lacks front-line depth. Bosh has taken a ton of criticism for his perceived "soft" play since coming to Miami, but the fact is he has produced on a consistent basis and was great for the Heat during their run to the finals in last year's playoffs. 

Miami went just 4-5 without Bosh in the lineup during the regular season this year. With him in the lineup they averaged nearly 100 points per game, but without Bosh they scored barely over 87 a contest.

Experts will surely disagree about how much the injury to Bosh will affect the Heat's chances, but it can't be denied that it'll make the Heat considerably worse. The question though is without him in the lineup, or at least not at 100 percent, can they still win an NBA title?

The fact remains that while a great player, Bosh is only the third best player on the Heat. Losing LeBron James or Dwyane Wade would assuredly doom the Heat's title chances, but the argument can still be made for them being the best team even without Bosh.

James is playing on an incredible level this season, recently being presented with his third MVP trophy in his career. Wade has the playoff pedigree already having an NBA Championship and is still playing on an elite level. 

But outside of Wade and LeBron, do the Heat have enough? Without Bosh they will rely even more on their role players to pitch in and take some of the load off of the Heat's superstars. 

Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier and Mike Miller will need to pickup their scoring, while Joel Anthony, Udonis Haslem and Rony Turiaf will all need to pick up for Bosh's defense and rebounding as they will all be seeing more minutes with him out of the lineup.

Most experts still believe the Heat can get by the Indiana Pacers without Bosh. Indiana is a good team, but they lack the closer to take over the game late which they need to beat a team as talented as Miami. 

Still without Bosh, the Pacers assuredly feel as though they have a shot, and if they can steal a win in Miami tomorrow night it could alter the entire series. 

If the Heat are able to beat Indiana, however, the question is are they still the favorite to win the NBA Championship?

As we mentioned earlier, the two best players in the Eastern Conference not on the Heat (Rose and Howard) both suffered season ending injuries which opened the door for the Heat to run through the eastern conference with two of their biggest threats out of the way.

In my opinion the second-best team remaining in the East is the Boston Celtics, but even without Bosh, the Heat have more talent than the aging Celtics. It would without a doubt be a competitive Eastern Conference finals matchup between the two teams, but in the end I believe LeBron and Wade would wear down Boston and advance to the finals.

But once they get there, I'm not sure if they are the favorites even if Bosh is able to come back.

Both the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder were extremely impressive in their opening round series (which they both swept), and I expect them to knock out the LA teams (OKC is facing the Lakers, while the Spurs face the Clippers) in the next round and meet in the Western Conference finals.

Both of those teams are very talented, deep, well coached and have the stars to match up against a team like the Heat. The Spurs have the experience advantage, but the Thunder may have more overall talent with two superstars of their own Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

In a seven game series against Miami without Bosh, I think both of those teams would come out victorious. However, if Bosh is able to come back, it really would be a tossup.

Against San Antonio, it would be the experience of Duncan, Ginobili and Parker, as well as the depth of the Spurs, against the pure talent of the Heat's big three—similar to what we saw last year when Miami faced Dallas in the finals.

Against the Thunder, it would be a battle of the two most talented teams in the NBA and would likely come down to Durant, Harden and Westbrook against Wade, James and Bosh late in games to determine which team would come out on top.

I expect one of those three teams to be NBA Champions at the end of the day, but which one it will be is becoming harder to predict every game.

What once seemed like Miami's title for the taking, however, has now become an open race, especially with the new complication of the injury to Chris Bosh.