Chris Bosh Injury: All Eyes on Pacers' Frontcourt After Big 3 Reduction

True contenders take advantage.

When an injury forced Chris Bosh to the floor in Game 1, the Indiana Pacers were injected with hope. Fun Fact of the Day: The Pacers will never possess a more favorable opportunity than this.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that Bosh is out indefinitely with a strained abdominal muscle. After his MRI on Monday, the power forward said, “This season has to be extended for me to play again. That's what's on my mind. We started treatments and it's a process. We’ll see how my body responds.”

If the Pacers’ frontcourt fails to rise in Bosh’s absence, they’ll never rise.

Roy Hibbert, David West and Danny Granger are All-Stars. Hibbert and West will be matched up with the likes of Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony and Ronny Turiaf. In theory, the Pacers’ pair should absolutely dominate the Heat’s mediocre trio of big men.

But that didn’t happen in the second half of Game 1.

Miami outworked Indiana 45 to 38 on the boards. Anthony—a player deemed to be the weak link of the Heat—finished the contest with a plus/minus of plus-nine.

How did the he pull off such an impressive performance? Simple: He outworked the Pacers’ frontcourt.

According to Hoopsworld, West said after the announcement of Bosh’s injury: “We just can’t think that’s going to give us some sort of one-up. When you’ve got two guys like D-Wade and LeBron, I just don’t think that would be the smart thing to do.”

West better walk the talk and increase his effort in Game 2. After all, he'll be forced to take over as the Pacers' leading scorer.

Granger will struggle all series long with LeBron James checking him. If Granger efficiently drops just 15 points per game, Indiana will be well on their way to shocking the Heat. But after a seven-point performance in which he looked downright terrified of James, that isn’t likely.

And because of that unlikelihood, all eyes will be on Hibbert and West.

Now, there are some rumblings that LeBron will see time at power forward. That will move Shane Battier to the starting lineup which isn’t exactly a drastic drop off defensively.

Either way, if Indiana’s size shines, they’ll eliminate the Heat. If not, they’ll earn the label of a pretender and be reduced to nothing more than another version of the Atlanta Hawks for years to come.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

Follow @TheRealDDaniels